Airship Grigori: Tales of Captain and Crew
by Silver Inklett
Summary: Seven years ago, Maka was just a lonely girl with big dreams and a broken family. Now she's 19, and under the watch of Captain Soul "Eater" Evans, is pilot of the greatest airship in the skies. A tale of love, family, and mystery in a steampunk fic.
1. We Met By Strange Circumstances

**O~**

**Prologue**

**We Met By Strange Circumstances  
**

**~O**

Green eyes roved over the ballroom, taking in the sights and sounds of hundreds of people partying in true Victorian style. Elaborate dresses moved with ghostly grace, gem and cog incrusted masks hid pale, powdered faces with painted lips curled up in coy smiles. The small girl in the corner watched it all, her forest green eyes missing no detail, forgetting no face (or mask). Her watchful eyes latched onto a red haired man, waltzing across the floor with some woman she didn't recognize. His intelligent blue eyes were hidden behind a gold mask, and the young girl could see the woman's blush reaching her rather ample bosom. He was Spirit Albarn, New Death Haven's newest mayor, and as he waltzed deeper into the crowd, laughing, he was completely unaware of the two pairs of green eyes that followed him.

"Stupid Papa," the smaller girl growled, clasping her gloved hands behind her back. Her ashy blonde hair was tied up into two sleek pigtails, tied off with simple black bows (the gears that decorated the knots were her own addition). Her childish figure was wrapped in the best dress money could buy, evidence of her father's desperate attempts to win over her affection and trust. The taller woman looked down at her daughter with a sad smile, her own green eyes shining with unshed tears. Both women had abandoned their expensive masquerade masks long ago, though the masks made of false emotions that they wore constantly remained.

"Just ignore him Maka," she said with false cheer in her voice, pink lips pulled up in a painful smile. Maka watched as her mother brushed a few loose strands of hair back into the elegant twist on the back of her head. "You go and enjoy the party, yes? I'm sure there are some other children here that would love to have your company." Maka sighed, shaking her head before reaching up and giving her mother a quick peck on the cheek.

"Yes ma'am," she said, turning on her heel and heading towards the middle of the floor. Figures brushed against Maka as she pushed her way through, floating towards the stairs. She moved with unearthly grace, the spitting image of her mother, Kami Albarn, as she ghosted up the stairs. Her head was held high and her pink lips pursed. Once she reached the top of the stairs, she instantly relaxed, letting out a breath she hadn't know she was holding.

"And Mama wonders why I don't like these parties," she said, the polite tone in her voice replaced with one of exasperation. Quickly adjusting the maroon and white striped corset that wrapped around her stomach, Maka grasped the railing that over looked the ballroom floor. Here on the second floor, she was at eye level with the mechanical chandelier, powered by a large clockwork mechanism to spin, the candle's soft flames flickering along with the harsh light of the gas light bulbs.

She also had the perfect vantage point to watch the show taking place on the floor below.

Her mother stormed up to the red haired man, her green eyes aflame with fury. Kami grabbed one of his arms, ripping him away from the young woman he danced with. Spirit blanched and opened his mouth to start making excuses, but she gave him no chance. Maka couldn't hear the exact words that her mother screamed, but she could use her imagination (and judging by how everyone had stopped dancing to watch the spectacle, her mother was yelling pretty loudly). Spirit opened his mouth again, this time to apologize, he was cut off suddenly by his wife's scream of "NO MORE EXCUSES! IT'S OVER SPIRIT! GOOD BYE!" Maka watched with sad green eyes as her mother stormed off the dance floor. Her head held high and shoulders thrown back, Kami threw open the large double doors and strode out, never to look back.

"Bye Mama," Maka whispered. She returned her attention back to her now sobbing father on the floor, her expression one of disgust. He looked up and their eyes locked for a moment, but then Maka snarled and pushed away from the railing. Stepping out into the cool night air on the balcony that wrapped around the front of the building, Maka sighed and looked up to the stars. Her mama was gone, leaving her behind to deal with the disgusting mess that used to be her father. She should have felt some resentment towards the woman she looked so much like, but she couldn't find it in her. All she could feel was this overwhelming sense of sadness. Her life was forever changed, how would she be able to grow up without her mother?

Maka hadn't noticed the tears beginning to flow down her cheeks.

As she stared up at the sky, Maka felt something grow in her stomach, a rough, raw, feeling. It was cold and rested heavily in the pit of her tummy. She wanted it out, _now. _And so she did what any other 12 year old girl would do.

She screamed.

Kami stopped in her tracks as she heard her daughter's pained screams echo around the estate that the elaborate masquerade was being held in. Wiping away a few stray tears, she turned away yet again. "Good bye love," she whispered.

Maka screamed for all she was worth. A rough, heartbroken sound that all but shattered the soul of all who heard it. Many of the people inside had begun to cry for the little girl, many were glaring at the once celebrated red-haired man, and a few had even begun to head towards the stairs to comfort the tiny girl that many had known since her birth. Spirit Albarn was a very sociable man and he enjoyed dragging his daughter around with him, showing her off. As one of the women reached the stairs, she was surprised to see a young teen stride across the second floor, and once he had crossed the threshold of the balcony, slammed the doors shut behind him. She blinked once but once the music started up again, she tried to forget the heartbroken girl on the balcony with the odd boy.

Maka's throat felt raw as her tortured scream died down into pained whimpers and sniffs. Clutching the front of her dress, her green eyes widened when she saw a clean white hankie waving in front of her face.

"Go ahead, take it," a deep voice said. "I have plenty more at home." Blinking rapidly, Maka reached out and grabbed it, blowing her nose rather noisily into the once-clean hankie. Maka looked up at the man who had offered her the hankie and was surprised to see a young boy, about her age with bright white hair that glowed yellow in the moonlight and red eyes watching her closly.

"T-thank you," she muttered, trying to ignore his calculating stare. "I'm-"

"Cold." Maka quirked an eyebrow and noticed for the first time that she was shivering. The albino boy sighed and took of his top coat, offering it to the shivering girl.

"Well, um yes, thank you. But I meant to say my name is Maka," she said as she pulled the coat over her shoulders. The other boy leaned back against the railing, his crimson stare locked on her heart shaped face.

"I know who you are," he said with a shrug. "Maka Albarn, daughter of New Death Haven's mayor, 12 years old and student at the Mjolnir School for Girls." Maka regarded him with wary green eyes. He know quite a lot about her, and her brain subconsciously pulled up a memory of her mama telling her about seemingly polite men who in actuality were blood thirsty pirates. The boy in front of her _did _kind of look like a pirate, with his blood red eyes and heavy leather boots.

Then again, she was also wearing boots under her dress, if only to spite her father (and to drive off any possible dance partners).

The boy held out his hand, smiling slightly at the wary girl. "I'm Solomon Evans, but my friends call me Soul."

"What should I call you?" Maka questioned with a slightly joking tone. She was surprised by how easily she could talk to this boy, normally she drove boys off like the plague. But then his smile got wider and she knew why it was so easy to talk to him.

He was different.

Soul was surprised to see the girl in front of him relax instead of recoil when he smirked, showing off rows of sharp, jagged teeth. She was only a year younger than him, and yet she seemed comforted by his strange appearance. Normally, he drove other kids away with his intense crimson stare and jagged teeth, but she only smiled, twin emeralds shining in her eyes.

"Soul," he said. She would be his friend, he decided. It would be nice to be around someone who didn't judge him by his looks. Besides, he could see it in her eyes that they were in the same boat. Born into wealth and luxury, but having nothing of true value. Soul had never had a true friend (the maids and servants at the large Evans' estate didn't count), and Maka had just watched her family fall to pieces in front of her.

Maka reached out and shook his hand, surprised by the rough skin. Most of the boys she had met had soft, unmarked skin, never having worked a day in their lives. Maka often cleaned her family's large house after her mother fired all of the maids (she didn't want to watch her husband flirt with other women right under her nose), so her hands were rough from the labor. But Soul's hands were another kind of rough.

"Evans…" Maka thought aloud, examining his peculiar hands (she was a bit ADD like that). "That's a family of musicians, right?" Soul nodded and Maka smiled widely. "That explains it!"

'_There's something amazing about watching this girl smile,' _Soul thought to himself as she began to babble on about her mother's failed attempts to get her to play an instrument. She had been crying just five minutes ago, and he felt an odd sense of pride at being able to turn her mood around so quickly. He dragged her over to the railing overlooking the acres of gardens that wrapped around the entire building and leaned against the railing, smiling as the wind played with his colorless locks.

"So, what about you?" Maka asked, jarring Soul from his thoughts.

"Huh?" he asked, his red eyes no longer wide and calculating but droopy and lazy. Maka understood that this was a side of him that not many people ever saw, and she knew he knew that she was showing him the same side (she never babbled like this around members of higher society, that would be rude). Smiling slightly, she tapped her finger against the rail.

"What would you want to do if you weren't born into this," Maka said with a sweep of her arm. "If you had a choice about what you would become." Soul smirked and looked up towards the sky.

"That's simple. I would buy myself an airship and fly all over the world, the captain of the coolest airship ever. I can see it now," Soul closed his eyes blissfully. "Captain Soul Evans. It's got a nice ring to it doesn't it?"

"Would you need a pilot?" Maka asked with a smile, green eyes shimmering in the moonlight. Soul quirked an eyebrow at her. "Before she married my papa," Maka explained "My mama was an airship pilot, one of the best there ever was. She met my papa on a routine fuel stop and never got back on an airship again. She used to stay at home during the week and give me little mini lessons." Maka looked at Soul with determination burning in her eyes. "It's my goal to become an even better pilot than my mama was, and have my ship become the star of the Shibusen Alliance."

"Alliance, huh?" Soul said with a smirk. "Not exactly my style, but that's okay, I make anything look cool." He stuck out his hand, seemingly challenging Maka with his crimson eyes. "You've got yourself a deal Albarn. You pilot my ship and make it the coolest ship to ever grace the sky, and I'll be the best damn captain the Alliance has ever seen." Without hesitating, Maka reached out and grabbed Soul's hand in her own with a surprisingly strong grip.

"I'm warning you," Maka said playfully. "I've got a mean temper and can be a bit of a snob sometimes."

"Well I'm lazy and have the appetite of a thousand pound gorilla," Soul said with a shrug. "I think we'll be able to deal." The two kids shook hands, sealing their friendship with promises of another life away from the gracefully dancing figures behind the balcony doors. As they resumed their star gazing, Soul sighed loudly.

"I gotta say though, I'm a bit disappointed." Maka turned and leveled him with a glare.

"How so?" she asked, Soul catching glimpses of the mean temper lurking beneath the seemingly innocent surface. Deciding to test her limits, Soul plowed on.

"I always imagined my pilot to be a tall, beautiful woman, not a flat chested shrimp," he said with a devious smirk. Maka's cheeks puffed up and her face went red (_'She's a blusher. __**Excellent**__,')._

"Makaaaaa-" the tiny girl pulled a book out from nowhere and slammed it forcefully into his skull. "CHOP!"

"HOLY CRAP!" Soul shrieked, holding his injured head. "WHAT WAS THAT!" Maka stood over him triumphantly, the book resting her shoulder and her hip cocked to the side.

"I told you I had a temper," she said innocently, making Soul growl.

"That's not a temper! That's sadism! God, half of the girls I know can hardly say 'Boo!'" Maka leaned over so that she was at eye level with her new friend.

"Well I'm not like most girls, am I?" she asked, mirroring Soul's smirk from earlier. Soul watched her with wary eyes before shaking his head and chuckling to himself. He soon began to full out laugh, and Maka soon joined him.

"No, you're not," Soul said with a smirk, reaching out and ruffling Maka's pigtails. She lightly batted his hand away with a smile.

"You know Maka, I have the feeling this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Soul said with a cheesy grin. Maka rolled her eyes at the cheesy line, smiling back warmly as she looked to the skies.

'_Just you wait Mama, I'll make you proud of me yet!'_

_**- 7 Years Later –**_

**SMASH!**

**CRASH! **

**BOOM!**

"OUCH!" Maka hissed as her head hit the top of the engine, half of her body wedged between nuts and bolts and the other half sticking out, one of her long legs flailing around like crazy. Repositioning herself so that that her arms were in front of her, she pushed herself out, grumbling and cussing all the way. Wiping her greasy hands on a rag tucked into the waistband of her denim shorts, Maka walked over to the intercom system and pulled down the lever so that it was positioned over "BRIDGE". After waiting a few seconds, Maka could hear the sounds of people panicking on the other line. She recognized one voice that sounded closer than all the others, and instantly called out to the owner of the voice.

"Kidd!" Maka yelled, trying to be heard over the sounds of girls shrieking in the background. "What's going on?" The entire room rocked with another crash and Maka held on desperately to a pipe that gutted out from the wall.

"We're being attacked by an Arachnophobia ship," Kidd shouted back after screaming at the other people on the bridge to "shut their freakin' mouths."

"Do we know which one?" Maka replied, already cleaning up her mess from working on the engine and double checking that she hadn't left any pipes loose or any connecters… unconnected?

"Looks like the Mosquito." Maka cussed under her breath and tossed her tool box into a cabinet.

"I'll be right up Kidd," Maka said before turning off the intercom and shooting down the hall, her medium length ash blonde hair trailing behind her. Making a quick stop by her room to change from her work clothes into something more appropriate, Maka ran to the bridge, tying her hair up into two wild ponytails behind her goggles. Upon reaching the top of the stairs to the bridge, Maka groaned at the sight before her. Liz and Patti, Kidd's two bodyguards, were running around the bridge screaming about how they were all going to die. A tall, attractive, Japanese girl sat at the control panel, trying desperately to reach the closest port and warn them of the incoming ships. And Kidd, their own personal doctor, sat at the helm, trying desperately to keep the airship under control.

"It's about time!" he hissed, glaring at Maka over his shoulder. "I can't fly this thing very well, and whoever is piloting the Mosquito is good!"

"Well we'll just have to be better," Maka said, her lips pressed together in a grim line as she all but kicked Kidd out of her chair. Taking the wheel, Maka immediately switched on the Gyrostabilizers and banked hard to the left. She could see the large Arachnophobia ship on their tail. It was a grotesque airship, with a bulbous body and long narrow bridge poking out of the front. The gyrostabilizers kept the ship from rocking uncontrollably, instead keeping it upright as the ship twisted and turned around them, but Maka felt uncomfortable flying like this. She flew better when she moved with her baby, one with the airship.

"Liz! Patti! Stop shrieking like two scared little girls and go secure everything down! I want to have these stabilizers off in five minutes, capeesh?" Both sisters snapped to attention and took off down the stairs to secure any loose items. "Tsubaki, get through to the port if you can, but I want your main focus to be on hacking Mosquito's system and knocking them offline."

"Hai!" Tsubaki said determinedly. As she turned back to the screens before her, the intercom system to Maka's right cackled to life.

"WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON UP THERE! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT THE GREAT BLACKSTAR IS TRYING TO GET HIS BEAUTY SLEEP!" Maka winced as the loud voice blared through the system, making her ears ring and her eyes roll.

"We can't have you asleep right now BlackStar!" Maka yelled back, emerald eyes flashing dangerously. "I want you on the upper hull gun now!" Maka could practically hear the gears in BlackStar's brain shudder to life.

"Can I take my goo bullets with me?" he asked, not trying to disguise the excitement in his voice. Maka sighed and rolled her eyes up to the heavens as she banked again, this time to the right.

"Yes, fine, whatever! Just get up there!" Laughing maniacally, BlackStar turned off his intercom system again. Turning to Kidd, Maka's eyes narrowed.

"Where's the captain?" she hissed. Kidd shrugged and Maka cussed loudly. Grabbing the handle on the intercom system, she set in on "CAPTAIN" and instantly went red from anger when she heard loud snores echoing from the room. Just then, the two sisters came back up the stairs, out of breath but triumphant.

"Everything's locked down Maka," Liz said with a thumbs up. Maka smirked evilly (everyone instantly took a long step back) and Maka turned back towards the front.

"_Perfect timing."_ Maka turned off the stabilizers, and with a quick giggle, banked to the left. The entire ship rocked hard to the left and Maka smirked when she heard a crash and a loud string of cusses coming from the intercom system.

"MAKA! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" a deep voice roared through the system.

"Oh, good morning Captain," Maka said with a sickly sweet voice. "How are you? Slept well I hope?"

"Maka, just tell me what's going on!" he hissed. Maka smirked when she heard him try to stifle a yawn.

"Well, Tsubaki made pancakes for breakfast, we've clear blue flying skies, oh, and we're being broadsided by the Mosquito."

"WHAT!" Maka smiled when she heard him sprint from the room, swearing the whole way. Not a minute later, Soul emerged at the top of the stairs, still pulling on his pants. Maka and Soul had known each other for years, but it was times like this when Maka came to fully appreciate how much the two had grown up together. Soul had gone from a scrawny 13 year old rebel to a strong, 20 year old man and Maka herself was no longer the tiny girl that had been on the balcony (well, she was still short, but Soul could no longer joke about her being a "flat chested bookworm").

"Morning Soul," Maka said with a small smirk. Soul came up behind her and whacked her lightly on the back of the head.

"It's Captain Soul while we're in the air, and what've we got?" Maka rolled her eyes.

"95 Arachnophobia Class Airship, code name 'Mosquito', and I can call you whatever I damn well please _Soul." _Soul glared at the green eyed girl as she innocently batted her eyelashes at him. He wondered briefly why he kept her around, but then she turned back to the wheel with a hiss and performed a complicated flying maneuver that would make any Alliance pilot turn green with envy towards the tiny blonde woman. '_Oh yeah, that's why I keep her,' _he thought wryly to himself.

"Where's BlackStar?" Both pilot and captain looked to their right just in time to see the Mosquito's front window become covered in a gooey green substance.

"Right about there," Maka said with a small smile. Soul smiled back at her, his sharp teeth flashing at her.

"We've got them!" Tsubaki cried happily, the screens around her lighting up and the speakers on either side of her playing the Mosquito's intercom system.

"Sir! We have no visibility out of the bridge!" a voice screeched, his voice twisted with anxiety. An annoying buzzing sound echoed through the intercom system, and soon after a regal (if not highly annoying) voice rang through, loud and clear in the crew's ears.

"Damn those Shibusen brats," the man, who Soul assumed to be the captain, hissed. "Fine then. They want to play dirty? We can do that. ARTILERY!"

"Yes Sir!" a small voice squeaked back. Maka could tell just from his voice that he was an inexperienced fighter.

"I want that upper hull gun taken out now! And then aim for their engine," the loud voice shouted. Maka and Soul exchanged a look, and Soul reached for the intercom control.

"BlackStar, expect some fire up there pretty soon!" Soul shouted, trying to be heard over his friend's loud laughter.

"Soul man! Did you see that! I was awesome! YAHOO! THE GREAT BLACKSTAR IS THE WORLD'S ONLY STAR!"

"IT'S CAPTAIN SOUL!" Soul screeched back, glaring heavily at Maka before rolling his eyes. "Teaching my crew bad manners. I should make you walk the plank."

"We don't have a plank," Maka said with a small, warm smile as she maneuvered around the Mosquito's attacks.

"Well then I'll throw you overboard or something!" Maka laughed, and Soul affectionately ruffled her hair. '_You big dope,' _Maka thought with a small smile, her face burning the lightest shade of red. Soul saw this out of the corner of his eye and he internally smirked. Seven years later and he still took a freakish amount of pride in the fact that he could make the headstrong woman blush with the simplest of gestures. '_Imagine what would happen if I-NO! Bad Soul! Maka is your pilot, nothing more!' _ Soul thought frantically to himself as he watched Maka fly with an obscene amount of grace, her green eyes sparking and her soft pink lips pulled back in a wide smile. With a quick shake of his head, Soul reached up towards the windshield, snatching up his goggles and pulling them on with a wide smirk.

"Let's do this thing," he said, his crimson eyes sparking dangerously as he leaned on the back of the chair.

"Aye aye Captain," Maka said with a saucy grin.

**~O**


	2. Stow Away

**O~**

**Blair Arc: Chapter 1**

**Stow Away**

**O**

The Lost Island Port was a small, rustic port in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Normally, only small ships rested in the harbor, but occasionally, large black airships of various bizarre shapes would port there. Every time these ships came around, all of the citizen's would hide out in their houses, the strange men with their bizarre masks stalking through the streets.

So when the loud, high pitched whine of an airship going much too fast was heard coming towards the port, many of the citizens ran for cover, grabbing their children and heading for their houses. To their surprise, a small, gray ship streamed overhead, a well built blue-haired man cackling manically as they raced through the sky. In a surprising display of piloting, the beat up ship pulled into the air-docks with a hard thud. A few of the men and 3 or 4 bold children walked out onto the docks, cautiously approaching the ship, apparently called the "Airship Grigori" judging by the scratched up emblem on the side of the ship.

"HAHA! THE GREAT BLACKSTAR HAS TAKEN DOWN THOSE ARACHNIPHOBIA DUMBASSES WITH EASE THAT ONLY A GOD COULD ACHIEVE!" Everyone on the dock jumped a foot in the air as the blue-haired man manning the upper hull gun cackled and laughed, holding his stomach. The hatch near the top flew open and a woman with dark blonde hair shot up, her blue eyes sparking.

"For the love of god, SHUT UP!" she shrieked. The two began to fight and the men on the dock all sweatdropped at the unusual sight. The main hatch opened up, and two more crew members, a small, attractive, blonde woman and a tall, well-built man with silver hair stepped out onto the wooden rafts that were held in the air by long wooden beams. The woman looked at the airship and promptly screamed.

"OH MY GOD! MY SHIP!" She ran to the large, dark grey hull, tears shining in her moss green eyes. The ship was riddled with bullet holes and covered in soot from explosions. "Oh baby, what did those mean pirates do to you!" The white haired man watched as the attractive woman (many of the men had begun to stare) pressed her cheek against the ship, cooing and whispering comforting words to the ship.

"Um, I think you mean _my _ship," he drawled, rolling blood red eyes. The blonde turned to him quickly and glared heavily at him.

"I fly this ship and I named this ship, it's _mine._"

"I'm the captain and I bought the ship, it's mine," he growled, stepping closer so that the two were chest to chest. Soon, they also began to fight, and it wasn't until a tall Japanese girl stepped from the ship did she manage to silence them all with a loud whistle.

"If you all would be quiet for just a moment," she said, her voice ringing across the air-port. "You would notice that we have an audience." The four fighting crew members noticed for the first time the group of men staring open mouthed at them.

Maka went an interesting shade of red and Soul smirked wordlessly. "Oh shit," she muttered. Soul continued to smirk and Maka quickly slammed her fist into his stomach, a large, plastic smile on her face.

"W-what is your business here?" one of the men said, staring at the whole crew that had arranged themselves on the dock. The blonde girl and the red-eyed man stood in front, the blue haired monkey and the tall Japanese woman standing to their right and a man with black hair (excluding the three white stripes that went across his head), along with two blondes on their left.

"We just needed a place to dock until we can get the next Shibusen branch," the tall white haired man called back, his hands buried in his pockets.

"Who are you?" The whole crew looked towards the tiny girl who had stepped forward, her big blue eyes shining. Maka's eyes widened as she was reminded of her papa for a moment.

"Captain Soul "Eater" Evans of the Shibusen ship 'Airship Grigori'," Soul said, stepping forward and straightening his shoulders.

"Maka Albarn, pilot and first lieutenant." She kneeled down to the little girl and whispered in her ear "And it's totally my ship."

"Black Star! Weapons expert," the blue haired man yelled.

"Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, communications and cook."

"Death the Kidd, medic," the ebony haired man said, adjusting the cuffs of his white suit jacket.

"Patti and Liz Thompson," the taller blonde said,

"Bodyguards!" the shorter blonde yelled happily. One of the younger men scoffed, rolling his eyes.

"You're supposed to be the bodyguards?" he scoffed. Both sisters narrowed their eyes and Maka could only sigh.

"Here we go," she mumbled. Within seconds, the young man was flat on his back, Patti straddling his stomach and pressing the cold steel of her double-barrel pistol to his throat. His dull brown eyes were wide in shock as the youngest Thompson smiled evilly, her eyes wide with malice.

"You got a problem buddie?" she cackled, clearly enjoying herself way too much. The boy under her quivered, shaken by the young blonde's demeanor.

"N-no ma'am!" he stammered. Liz leaned on one leg, cocking her hip to the side as she regarded the boy that her sister had pinned.

"Didn't think so," the elder bodyguard smirked. Maka rolled her eyes and went to grab Patti. This wasn't the first time this had happened, and both girls were quick to defend their skills (it was a pride thing). The last time, they had been kicked out of the port, and they had to fly hungry for two days.

"Patti, Liz! Off the boy!" Soul barked, using what BlackStar and Maka had dubbed as his 'captain voice'. His normally rough voice dropped an octave, gaining an authoritative ring to it, and his normally lazy-looking red eyes went hard and seemed to spark with determination. Maka shivered at the sound of it as she helped Patti up, making sure to step on one of the boy's fingers as she pulled the small blonde up.

"Sorry about that," Soul said, stepping forward so that he was face to face with the man would had spoken first. "My crew is just a bit frazzled. We ran into an Arachnophobia ship and just shook them off our tails after knocking their systems offline." The group from the town began to murmur at this, their eyes wide.

"Y-you faced them?" one of the men said, his eyes wide in awe.

"Yeah, well," Maka shrugged. "We do it a lot." This only fueled the whispers and Soul aimed a small glare at the pilot.

"So do you think it would be okay for us to dock here for a day or two?" the albino captain said, appearing lazy with his half-lidded eyes and hands shoved in his pockets.

"OF COURSE!" The entire crew jumped at the loud, booming voice, a large man reaching the large wooden platform.

Now, Soul liked to think that he was pretty tall at about 6 foot 1, but this man stood nearly two heads taller than he did. His head was bald except for a single blonde curl and he seemed to be, honest to god, _sparkling _as he strode over to the crew. '_Is this guy for real?' _Soul thought with a grimace, and his answer came in the form of an over-zealous hug. It felt like every bone in his torso had been crushed and he gasped for breath. "M-Maka! H-help!" The younger woman grimaced at her captain's pained expression and latched onto one of the man's large arms (the man's biceps were as wide as watermelons).

"Let go! You're crushing him!" she pleaded, pulling hard on his arm. The man released his grip, dropping Soul to the ground. Maka immediately ran to his aid, helping the albino man up as he tried to catch his breath.

"I'm sorry ma'am!" The large man boomed. "I did not mean to hurt your captain! I am Alex Louis Armstrong, mayor of this humble port!" (AN- CAMEO FTW!) Maka sweatdropped, smiling nervously at the large man. He was dressed casually, a pocket watch tucked into his vest pocket. His khaki pants were pressed to perfection, and Maka could tell that he came from a privileged family.

"Nice to meet you sir," Maka said calmly, taking his hand in a friendly handshake (he nearly broke her hand), calling upon her experience with dealing with officials that came with being a politician's daughter. "We just need a place to keep our ship while we do a few repairs."

"Of course, of course! If you'll just talk with our dock hand here, we'll get you all squared away!" he boomed, and the man that had led the small group stepped forward. Soul pushed himself off of Maka and rose to meet him, but the smaller blonde pushed him back and met the man instead. He scowled at the pilot, but she simply ignored him.

Gaining confidence, the group moved forward, meeting with the crew and all chatting happily. After a few minutes, some of the men had convinced the crew to join them for a few drinks at the local tavern and the group headed down the docks, walking towards the town. Soul looked back for Maka, but she was deep into the conversation with the older man, handing him paperwork and any identification needed. He eventually caught her eye and mouthed "You coming?" The blonde shook her head and smiled wearily at him, shooing him with a small hand motion. Shrugging, Soul turned and headed after the rest of their crew.

Hiding in an alley, a pair of cat-like amber eyes watched the tall man carefully. As he came closer and closer, they continued to follow him faithfully, not missing the somber look on his face or the way that he kept looking over his shoulder, watching for his pilot. When he passed the alley, the silver-haired man came to a halt, sensing eyes on his back. He turned quickly, but the amber eyes had disappeared, taking off into the alleys and leaving only the sounds of soft, padding feet and the swish of a tail

**O~**

"So this is where you've been hiding." For the second time that day, Maka's head hit the top of the engine, eliciting a long stream of curses from the small woman. After she shuffled out of the hollow space, she turned and glared at the laughing man behind her over her shoulder.

"Oh shut up Soul, I didn't get to finish this morning," she growled, throwing her oily towel at Soul's face. He caught it easily, quirking an eyebrow and smirking at the irritated girl. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the engine, beginning to clean up her mess.

Soul's smirk dropped and he let himself check out the pilot, damning the rules that he had set for himself. She was covered in grease and oil, random patches spotting her pale, smooth skin. The denim shorts she wore showed off the curve of her rump and the long legs that emerged from the shorts held his attention for a few moments, making him lick his lips subconsciously. As she reached up to tinker with the engine her tank top shifted over her stomach, revealing strong abs. His crimson eyes continued upwards, roving over the curves of her chest ('_Don't get a nosebleed, don't get a nosebleed')_ and tracing the column of her throat (AN- Lol, perverted Soul is fun to write).

"Any particular reason why you decided to grace me with your presence this fine evening?" she asked, shaking Soul's attention from her body to her face. He dropped a bag on Maka's workbench, shuffling back as she came over to investigate the bag.

"Brought you dinner. I know how you get, and since you probably weren't going to feed yourself, figured I might as well do it for you." Maka pushed her work goggles up with her thumb, pulling the hair away from her forehead.

"Thanks Soul, but I'm not hungry right now," she said politely. Soul simply quirked an eyebrow and Maka sighed. "Okay, so I'm a little hungry, but that doesn't mean I-"

"Eat," Soul commanded, pointing at the bag. Smiling softly, the pilot pulled her oversized gloves off and pulled the dinner out of its bag.

"Aye aye captain," she joked. Soul smirked and ruffled her hair in his typical, affectionate way. "What about you?" Maka asked, trying to talk around the bite of fish sandwich in her mouth. With a flourish Maka giggling like a little girl at the theatrical motions, Soul pulled out his own sandwich and the two sat on the small cot Maka had set up in comfortable silence, eating together.

"How's the town?" Maka asked after a few minutes. Soul swallowed and launched into a description of the town, leaving out no details. Maka ate happily while he talked, letting his rough, low voice flood her ears and drown out any straying thoughts. Eventually, Maka began to drift off, her moss green eyes fluttering closed and then snapping open again. Soul noticed this, and with a lazy smile motioned for the younger woman to lean against him. Maka easily complied, setting down her sandwich and resting her head on his shoulder, curling her body against his. Soul draped an arm around her small shoulders and pulled her closer, and not three minutes later the two were sleeping peacefully, Soul's loud snores drowning out Maka's soft breaths.

**O**

"HAHA! THE GREAT BLACKSTAR HAS ONCE AGAIN BEATEN THE ODDS AND SURPASSED SMALLER MEN WITHOUT LIFTING A FINGER!"

"Smaller? The guy was three feet taller than you!" Liz rolled her eyes, stumbling slightly as she began up the stairs. "I still vote that you cheated," she drawled, her accent clipped.

"Cheated? How do you cheat at arm wrestling?" Tsubaki asked curiously. She was probably the only sober crew member at the moment, and as such, she was stuck with helping them all up to the docks. Airship docks typically were platforms suspended in the air by tall poles, made of either wood, steel, or more recently titanium. The stairs that led up to the platforms were extremely narrow, only allowing one person up at a time, which made it difficult for Tsubaki to lead the drunken crew members up to safety.

"Well first he got the mayor drunk as hell," Liz began, but stopped as she tripped on thin air and fell onto the stairs. Kidd stepped over the girl and continued up the stairs, trying to remain upright as he stumbled up, carrying an unconscious Patti on his back. After twenty minutes of climbing, falling, and then climbing up the stairs again (Kidd may or may not have dropped Patti a few times), the crew made it onto the platform. Tsubaki went to open the bay door, but was surprised to see that the door was still open.

"Kidd-kun, did you leave the door open when we left?" she asked, pushing the button that made the door go up all the way so that they could get inside the ship.

"No, of course I didn't. Soul might have when he came back." The small group stumbled inside, heading down the hall to their own respective quarters.

(AN- If you need a visual, think "Serenity" from the show Firefly. That's the ship I think of when I think of the Grigori.)

After literally dropping BlackStar off in their bunk, Tsubaki headed to the engine room, determined to check on Maka. The 21 year old had caught Maka working late into the night on the engine multiple times, and since then she was determined to make sure the pilot got her full eight hours every night.

She didn't always succeed, but it's the thought that counts.

"Maka-chan, are you in here-" Tsubaki stopped, looking at the scene before her for a few seconds before smiling wistfully. Maka and Soul were both fast asleep, the two young adults tangled together. Soul's arms were wrapped protectively around Maka's waist, and the young woman had her head tucked into his shoulder. Tsubaki smiled and moved to turn off the lights when she noticed something on the workbench move. She turned her head slowly, and when she saw what it was, she stiffened up immediately.

"!" Soul and Maka shot up, both pulling pistols from out of nowhere. Tsubaki screamed again, pointing at the large purple animal that had previously been nibbling away at Maka's discarded fish sandwich. Pushing herself up, Maka grabbed for the animal and missed by inches. The three crew members ran around the engine room in pursuit of the purple creature. Tsubaki had had the sense to close the door the second she saw the animal, and so after a few minutes (and a few crashes into machinery) the three were able to back the creature into a corner.

"Wait a second," Maka said, straightening out of her crouch and narrowing her eyes. "That's not a rat, Tsubaki. It's just a cat."

"Well why is there a cat on MY ship!" Soul hissed, crimson eyes burning. The young pilot quickly smacked him on the back of the head ("It's my ship dumbass.") and lowered herself gently to her knees, holding her hands out towards the terrified creature.

"Its okay baby," she cooed, her voice low and soft. "We aren't going to hurt you."

"I might," Soul grumbled, but fell silent when Maka jerked around to glare heatedly at him.

"Come here sweetie, I won't hurt you, and I'll keep the scary demon man away." Soul growled at the insult, but the purple cat scooted forward, sniffing warily at Maka's small hands. After a few moments the cat hurried forward into the blonde's outstretched arms, latching onto her tank top with small, sharp claws. Maka smiled slightly and pulled the cat closer. "See? She's not dangerous, just scared."

"Well good for it, but it's still not staying," Soul snapped, crossing his arms and standing up straight. Maka narrowed her eyes and stood up as well, twisting her torso so that the cat was shielded from the tall, silver-haired captain.

"I say she's staying," she growled, pulling the shaking animal closer to her chest.

"Um, no, it's not."

"Yes she is."

"No, it's not!"

"Yes, she is!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"NO!"

"YES!"

"DAMN IT MAKA-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Tsubaki yelled, overpowering both the captain and pilot's loud voices. Both turned to stare at the Japanese girl, their eyes wide. "Now Soul, I think that Maka is responsible enough to take care of a cat, not to mention keep it happy and healthy. However, Maka, you have to recognize that whether you like it or not, Soul IS in charge and in the end it's HIS decision that sticks. Now you two can fight about this like two spoiled little rich kids," both Soul and Maka cringed at the wording, "or you can discuss this like ADULTS and come to an agreement that will make everyone happy." Soul sighed dragging his hand down his face. Tsubaki had this magical little power where she could stop any argument in its tracks, and more often than not, it was Soul and Maka on the receiving end.

"Look, Maka. You know you can't keep-" Soul turned toward his blonde friend and stopped. Maka was looking at the cat with tears in her moss green eyes. She looked utterly heartbroken, and the cat mewed quietly as Maka silently stroked the purple creature's ear. Soul's stomach felt like it had dropped to his feet, and he immediately began backtracking. "Um, or you, uh-What about in battle I mean, do you really want to be responsible for the cat's death-" Maka's head shot up to look at him and his eyes widened. The tears were flowing freely now, and her chin trembled slightly as she looked at her captain with wide, tear-filled green eyes. "Oh shit, I didn't mean-"

"No, it's okay," Maka croaked. She had quite a soft spot for small animals, and had always asked her parents for a cat. She had taken to feeding the strays in the towns where they would make port, and had considered more than once taking one of them home, and yet when one, hungry, terrified, and lonely, came, Soul was too heartless to let her keep it. The cat herself was beautiful, with soft purple fur and wide amber eyes. Her ears were tipped with white like two snow-tipped mountains, and her tail curled like a monkeys. However, what Soul couldn't see was the scars that Maka could feel under the shiny coat of purple fur. "I can ask the mayor… the mayor if he can…"

"Fine, you can keep the damn cat." Maka's head shot up, her eyes lighting up.

"Really!" Soul sighed, nodding while trying to hide his slight grimace. "Oh Soul! You really do have a heart!"

"Was there really any doubt-HEY!" Soul's face erupted in a fierce blush as Maka threw her arms around his neck, kissing him roughly on the cheek (she had passed the cat to Tsubaki).

"Thank you thank you thank you!" she exclaimed happily, pressing her cheek to his warm one as she pressed herself even closer to him. Hesitantly, Soul wrapped his arms around the blonde's waist.

"Yeah yeah, but first time that cat gets in our way during battle, it's off the ship," he grumbled, pushing the happy girl back. The pilot nodded energetically and took the cat back from Tsubaki.

"Come on Kitty, you can come sleep with me tonight!" she said happily, rushing out of the engine. Soul frowned and ran his hand through his hair. He looked up at Tsubaki who, much to his annoyance, was smiling widely (and somewhat smugly).

"Not. A. Word. You hear me?" The Japanese girl simply "Hm"ed, her smile never leaving her face, even after the irritated captain had stalked off to his own room.

**O~**

She was hungry.

Really, _really_, hungry.

The small purple cat wiggled slightly away from the warm body she was pressed against. Maka was the girl's name, she thinks. Things were hazy, seeing through this smaller body, and thought she was very grateful to the cute little girl from keeping that scary man from throwing her out into the streets (again), she couldn't remember her name clearly. Quietly, she squirmed out of the blonde's grasp, hopping onto the floor on four short, purple, legs. Stalking out of the room, the cat moved silently through the ship, looking quickly into each room she passed (she hadn't known that the pretty Japanese girl was sleeping with some blue haired kid).

She finally reached the kitchen, and with a final look around, she shifted.

Her tiny, cat body was enveloped in a dark purple smoke and she gasped in pain as she felt her skeleton stretch and change shape. Her muscles shifted and her soft covering of purple fur disappeared, replaced by long purple hair that brushed her rump.

Standing up straight, Blair stretched her arms over her head, sighing in relief. "Wow, I didn't know staying like that for so long would cause me to be so sore!" she exclaimed quietly, brushing a long curled strand back from behind her ear. Her long tail swished back and forth as she looked down at herself, noticing that while she was in fact human again, she was missing something very important (depending on who you talk to).

"Oh," she said, twisting her body slightly. "I'm naked." Blair was silent for a few moments before shrugging and throwing the refrigerator door open. The large, black rain boots that she wore (the _only_ thing that she wore) squeaked as she rifled through the fridge, the purple ears perched on her head twitching slightly at the annoying noise. Blair squealed happily as she found a small fish wrapped in butcher's paper on the lowest shelf, ripping the paper off and throwing the fish into her mouth.

Suddenly the lights flicked on, Blair shooting straight up at the change. She twisted around to look over her shoulder and her amber eyes widened when she saw the scary man from earlier staring at her with equally wide crimson eyes. His mouth dropped open and Blair automatically barred her own sharp canines, the fish still dangling halfway out of her mouth. The man stared at her for a few more seconds before reaching up and _slapping himself. _Blair's ears quirked at the odd reaction, but they immediately shot back up when the man turned his head slightly, his wide eyes still trained on her.

"HEY MAKA?" he yelled. A grumbled noise was the only response he got. "WHY IS THERE A NAKED LADY IN OUR KITCHEN?"

An unfamiliar voice instantly called back, "IT'S NOT MINE!"

"I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU BLACK STAR!" the silver-haired man yelled, his eyes finally leaving Blair and glaring at someone behind the door. The second his eyes left her, Blair took off like a shot, tearing down the hall towards the blonde girl (and startling the rest of the now-awake crew in the process). She heard an annoyed "HEY!" and ran faster, her boots squeaking loudly with every step. She was halfway to the door when her ears perked up and she automatically ducked down, the bullet whizzing harmlessly by her head.

Yelping, Blair took off again, dodging the bullets that the crimson-eyed man fired at her. At long last, she reached the blonde's room and threw open the door.

"MAKA-CHAN!" she screeched, jumping onto the bed with the blonde and scrambling to hide behind the now wide-awake girl. The scary man appeared in the doorway and leveled his pistol at her, making the cat woman scream.

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MAKA OR I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL SHOOT!" he roared, fury burning in his crimson eyes.

Maka immediately threw herself in front of the crying woman, throwing her arms out wide. "Soul don't shoot!" she gasped, her sleepy moss green eyes now wide and panicked. Blair wrapped her arms around Maka's waist and pressed her face into the pilot's wavy blonde tresses, trying to hide as best as she could. The rest of the crew now appeared in the door and Soul hesitantly lowered his pistol, his expression one of confliction. Turning around slightly, Maka looked at the shivering purple haired woman.

"What's going on here?" she asked, her tone betraying her complete and utter confusion. Blair could feel that confusion and latched onto the emotion, willing her body to shift back. The entire crew gasped as the strange woman exploded in a puff of purple smoke, only to be replaced by the small purple cat that Maka had saved earlier. The cat quickly jumped behind Maka, amber eyes peeking out behind the thin girl's torso.

"WITCH!" BlackStar screeched, making the crew members jump then growl dangerously. Within seconds they had all pulled out their weapons, pointing them at the terrified cat and equally terrified pilot that sat between about seven gun barrels and the possible witch.

"Bu-tan's not a witch!" Blair cried pitifully. But she was barely heard over the yells of the crew.

"DAMN WITCH, GET OFFA OUR BOAT!"

"We don't wanna' hurt you, but we will if necessary!"

"Guys."

"MAKA I CAN'T GET A CLEAR SHOT WITH YOU IN THE WAY!"

"EHEHEHEHEHEHE!"

"Guuuuys."

"I swear to god witch, you hurt Maka I will blow your mother fucking brains out-"

"GUYS!" Maka roared, her patience reaching its breaking point. "EVERYONE PUT THEIR WEAPONS DOWN NOW!"

"But Maka-!" Soul growled. Maka turned and the other crew members immediately shrank away from the emerald fire that burned wildly in the young woman's eyes.

"Put. Them. DOWN," she growled, pointing directly at Soul. Her normally happy voice sounded rough, gaining a new edge that made it impossible to defy her (and might have turned Soul on juuust a little bit). "I did not just spend 9 hours fixing the god damned engine just to have you make this ship land bound by PUTTING HOLES INTO THE MOTHER FUCKING HULL! NOT TO MENTION A TERRIFED 1 FOOT TALL CAT AND ME! Now while I try to figure this whole situation out, you are all going to go back to bed and put away the weapons. Understood?" The crew hesitantly lowered their weapons, warily eyeing the small creature clutching onto Maka's back. "UNDERSTOOD!" Maka roared after not receiving an answer.

"Yes ma'am!" the crew yelled back, frightened out of their minds. Maka didn't survive three years of battling Arachnophobia ships by being the sweet little governor's daughter. She was ruthless in battle, had a temper like you wouldn't believe, and she was not afraid to use it on her fellow crew members.

"I'm not leaving." Maka turned and looked at Soul with wide eyes. He was leaning against her wall, arms crossed and hair covering his eyes.

"Soul, I can take care of this myself," she said softly, pulling Blair out for behind her and setting the shaking cat on her lap. "Besides, she won't hurt me, right kitty?"

"Bu-tan would never hurt Maka-chan!" the cat half yelled, resting her paws on Maka's chest and staring into Maka's eyes with her own worried amber ones. "Bu-tan just wanted to escape from him, I never wanted to hurt anybody!" Maka's eyebrows furrowed.

"I'm sensing a story here," she murmured. Turning back to the door, she shot the others a smile. "I'll be fine guys, really. Go get some sleep 'kay? I want to be out of this port by noon tomorrow." The older crew members still hesitated, and Maka sighed, throwing back her sheets and lifting her sleeping shirt to reveal a thigh holster holding her pistol to her leg. The group visibly relaxed, and soon everyone but Soul had headed back to bed.

"Soooul-" Maka whined, quirking her head to the side and pouting, her blonde hair falling in waves across her thin shoulders. Soul simply grabbed the chair by her desk, turned it around, and sat down, his legs straddling the back of the chair and his arms hanging over the back. He looked up through his bangs and quirked an eyebrow as if to say "Just try and get me to leave." Maka sighed and turned back to the purple cat who was sitting patiently on her bed.

"Now, let's start from the beginning."

**O**

Eruka closed her eyes, her extremely pale blue hair tied up in a bun.

"Are you sure this was hers?" she asked, twisting her torso to look at the man standing behind her. Jacob Stanasloik was a tall, buff man, with full black hair and equally dark eyes. His hands were clasped behind his back and he wore the typical garb of an Arachnophobia captain.

"Of course I'm sure," he hissed. "I bought it for her." Eruka looked at the large diamond hanging from a thick golden cord and whistled.

"You bought very fine things for your whore," she said, letting the cord pool up in her palm. Being on the Recluse made her skin crawl, especially standing this close to the captain. But she needed the money that this quick job would offer, and she always took an opportunity to spy on Arachnophobia ships.

"Blair was not a whore, she was _mine_," Stanasloik said with a hiss, narrowing his dark eyes. The four thin scars that ran across his right eye seemed to shine and Eruka quirked an eyebrow. "I loved her very much, and she loved me."

"Oh I'm so sure," She said with a small evil smile. "She must have really loved you if she gave you those." The captain sneered at the young witch, but she simply turned back to the necklace that lay in her hand. She wasn't here to argue with the captain of the Recluse.

She was here to find his little toy.

Whispering the necessary incantations under her breath, Eruka could feel the magic flowing from her body into her palm, swirling around the necklace in the form of green smog. After a few moments, her eyes flashed open, the pupils gone and replaced by pure, unseeing white.

"She escaped at the Lost Island port," she droned, her voice sounding the haunting mix of three or four voices mixed together. "Using a magical charm she changed her form and ran, hiding out in alleys and eating from the trash. She should still be there." Stanasloik visibly relaxed.

"Good, then retrieving her should be no problem-"

"Wait." He stopped, turning back to the witch and watching with well-hidden amazement as her skirts and bangs whipped around with an invisible wind. "She's on a ship now... Shibusen. She seems to have taken to one of the girls on board... the pilot. And there's a man, she's scared of him, but she finds him interesting."

"What is the name of the ship!" the captain growled, his hands fisting up. Eruka closed her eyes and focused even closer on the cat-woman's soul. She could see images flashing across her empty eyes, and quickly catalogued them all. A young woman with ashen blonde hair, a pair of haunting crimson eyes partially hidden behind stark white hair, and a small gray ship with a painted emblem on the side. The emblem was scratched up and worn, but Eruka focused in on it closely.

She could see the young woman, now looking much younger, painting the emblem on lovingly and the crimson-eyed devil smiling widely as she put on the finishing touches. Ignoring the friendly exchange, Eruka focused even closer and the emblem seemed to engrave itself on the insides of her eyes. It was a large silver gear, with a soul with angel wings painted over top. In blocky black print the name of the ship was printed around the border, and as Eruka blinked away the spell, she relayed the name over to the fuming captain.

"Airship Grigori."

Stanasloik hissed, punching the walls of his cabin. Eruka jumped and scooted away from the scary man.

"Damn it. Of all of the ships to stowaway on, she has to pick that one," he growled, running a large hand through his inky hair.

"Why is that particular ship so bad?" Eruka asked as she put the necklace back in the otherwise empty jewelry box (the runaway girl had apparently grabbed as many jewels as she could before she had run).

"Have you not heard of the Grigori?" the dark-haired man hissed incredulously, and sighed at the witch's confused expression. "The Airship Grigori was one of the first Shibusen ships to take down an Arachnophobia ship, knocking the Widow out of the air with only two crew members on board. They're Shibusen's strongest ship, with the youngest female pilot ever registered onboard."

"Is she any good?" Eruka brushed the invisible dirt off of her skirt as she sat down on the edge of the bed.

"She's been called the "Angel of Death" by most Arachnophobia captains," Stanasloik said with a growl, thinking of his own subpar pilot. "And the captain is said to look like the devil himself."

"Sounds like a pretty scary guy, but I'm sure it's not as bad as you think. They'll be leaving the Lost Island port for Paris tomorrow, so you have a better chance of catching them there." Pushing herself up, Eruka held out her gloved hand, quirking a pale eyebrow expectantly at the irate man. With a snarl, he pulled out a small leather bag and dropped it in her expectant hand. After checking that the correct amount of coinage was present, the young witch adjusted her hat and shook the captain's hand. "Thanks for your business sir," she said happily.

"Thank you for finding Blair, no matter how inconvenient the location." He escorted her off the ship, and Eruka watched as five minutes later, the Recluse climbed into the air.

"So how'd it go?" Eruka looked up at the large man beside her and smiled.

"Oh hello Free! It went as well as expected," she said with a shrug. Free smirked down at her and offered her his arm.

"Excellent. And did you get the information the boss required?" Eruka nodded and Free laughed, throwing his head back. "Amazing! You never fail to stun me you know." The young frog witch blushed at the compliment and the two headed further down the docks.

"Please keep the compliments coming! I never get any from the boss." The two continued to banter playfully as they headed back towards the ship they worked on, the Cobra. Eruka told Free of the horror stories told by the captain, and he nodded.

"Oh yeah, I've heard of them," he growled out in his rough manner.

"Who do you think will win?" Eruka asked curiously, clinging closer to Free as some drunken sailors cat called at her (she thought of Stanasloik's girl and inwardly laughed at the irony).

"Can't tell. But one thing's for sure." Both young adults stopped and Free's carefree smile turned into an evil smirk.

"**There will be bloodshed."**

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

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	3. Tales of Yesterday

**O~**

**Blair Arc: Chapter 2**

**Tales of Yesterday**

_(THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M FOR VIOLENCE, GORE, AND RACY-NESS)_

**~O**

Maka looked at the cat that sat in front of her, its long purple tail swishing back and forth. "Now," she said, sounding much calmer than she felt. "Let's start from the beginning."

"Can Bu-tan change back first please?" the small cat asked. "It's really uncomfortable staying like this for too long." Maka looked over at Soul (who hadn't said a single word for the past four minutes) and quirked her eyebrow. Soul shrugged, staring right at the pilot with his unnerving red-eyes.

"Um, sure," Maka said, mirroring her captain's shrug. Blair purred happily and in a puff of purple smoke, sat cross-legged in front of Maka, still completely bare except for her rain boots. "WOAH! CLOTHES PLEASE!" Maka shrieked, quickly moving to cover her eyes. Maka noticed the older woman's body was covered in scars and bruises before she had covered her eyes, and immediately remembered why she had been so intent on keeping the cat.

"But I don't have any clothes," the cat woman said with her head quirked to the side (she sounded much more mature when she was in human form). Soul snickered, watching Maka huff and storm over to her closet.

"You could just give her one of my shirts, since apparently you have them all," he said with a smirk. Maka turned and glared at him over her shoulder and stuck out her tongue, swinging her hips suggestively.

"Oh you mean this shirt? It's not yours, it's belonged to that guy who I slept with at the last port." Soul's laughter chocked off in his throat, and Maka smiled triumphantly. "Kidding!" she sang, getting a few giggles out of the cat-woman that sat cross-legged on her bed.

"Are you two dating?" the half-naked woman said from her spot on the bed. Both young adults turned to glare at her and Maka scoffed, turning back to the closet to try and hide the blush that covered her face.

"No, we've just known each other for a long time," she said with a shrug, pulling an oversized shirt (that yes, was Soul's) out of her closet. She walked back over to the older woman and motioned for her to lift her arms up. With a small smile, Blair threw her hands up and Maka quickly pulled the shirt down over her large chest, noticing Soul watching them with suspicious eyes (the sight of the naked woman didn't bother him too much, he's lived on a tiny airship with four girls too long for it to). "So, let's start with something simple," Maka said, sitting down next the happy woman. "What's your name?"

"Blair Graeskar," Blair said, smiling. She turned to smile at Soul, but his cold stare sent shivers down her back. She immediately scooted closer to Maka and the pilot threw Soul an irritated glare. "_Watch it demon boy," _she seemed to say, and Soul bristled at the unspoken comment.

"So if you aren't a witch, then how can you turn into a cat?" Soul growled out, still glaring at Maka as he asked. Blair hooked her thumb under a piece of black ribbon tied around her neck and pulled out a large charm that hung from the middle. Maka leaned forward to inspect the charm that now lay in Blair's palm. It was a large, pumpkin shaped charm, with three triangles placed like eyes and a nose in the dark surface. Craning his neck to try and see over Maka's hunched form, Soul huffed, plopping back down in his seat.

"Well what is it?" he asked, his head quirking to the side. Blair opened her mouth to answer, but Maka beat her to the point.

"It's a magical charm, probably emotion based judging by the carvings on the back," she said as she inspected the charm with a critical eye. "Seems to date around the late 1730's, but that's just a rough guess." The pilot sat back on her heels, and went red when she noticed that both Blair and Soul were staring at her incredulously. She looked down quickly, fiddling with the hem of her sleeping shirt.

"You can take the girl out of the nerd, but you can't take the nerd out of the girl huh?" Soul said with a smirk, reaching across the narrow space and tugging affectionately on a piece of her wavy blonde hair. Before they had boarded the Grigori, Maka had been the top of her class, spending hours on end studying her pretty little heart out. She had even graduated early in order to start on her journey, unlike Soul who just dropped out.

"Don't hate," Maka grumbled. Blair giggled again at the two younger aeronauts (AN- I WAS TRYING TO REMEMBER THAT WORD FOR THE LONGEST TIME).

"But where were you able to find that?" Maka asked curiously, turning back towards Blair. "Those are extremely rare, especially those unrestricted ones." Noticing the weird look Soul was giving her, the younger woman picked up the charm between two of her fingers and pointed to an inscription on the bottom. It was garbled and in a language Soul couldn't understand. "Unrestricted magic charms, like this one, take some aspect of a person and convert it into MPVs and use them to cast spells of varying difficulties. You see that inscription right there?"

"Not really," Soul deadpanned.

"Well it's the intake charm. It makes the whole thing work. This particular type of charm can draw from either the wearer or someone who is close enough. After they take in the emotion-"

"Okay, I understood about three words of what you just said, and they were 'the, it,' and 'can'," Soul grumbled, rubbing his temples. Maka glared at him and whacked the sharp-toothed man upside the head. "ANYWHOM!" Soul all but yelled, baring his teeth at the now smirking pilot. "Care to tell us where you got that little trinket?"

Blair blinked her amber eyes a few times, inspecting the charm for a few seconds with a sad expression. "My grandmother gave it to me."

**O~**

"_Mammie! Mammie!" The older woman looked up from her garden to the tiny girl running full tilt at her, dark chocolate tresses flowing behind her. She smiled as her granddaughter stopped in front of her, her amber eyes wide with excitement._

"_What is it Blair?" she asked, kneeling down so that she was at eye level with the eleven year old girl. Blair thrust out her arms, revealing that she had been carrying a medium-sized metal box, pumpkin vines engraved into the lid._

"_Look at what I found in the attic!" she said happily, pulling it back to her chest in order to see it better. "Ain't it pretty!"_

"_Isn't it," Grandma Sofie corrected. Blair simply shrugged, twisting the box every which way as she inspected the box. _

"_I tried to open it," the younger girl said, pouting. "But it's all locked up!" Grandma Sofie smiled pleasantly and pulled on the silver chain that draped gently around her neck. Blair watched with wide amber eyes as a key emerged at the end, cooing happily._

"_Try using this Kitty," she said warmly. Her granddaughter took the key and quickly slipped it into the keyhole, and after a bit of wiggling and creative non-curses ("Fluffin' work!"), the lock turned. With a happy cry, Blair plopped down onto the grass next to her grandmother. Both Graeskar women watched in amazement as Blair lifted back the cover, revealing a few old trinkets._

_Blair gasped in amazement and her hand immediately shot forward, sifting through the contents easily and her small fingers wrapping around something small and round. It hummed pleasantly in her hand, and she knew immediately it was the thing that had called her. She had been playing innocently in the family room when she heard a soft humming echoing through the small cabin, calling to the eleven year old's very blood. She had stumbled through the house blindly, her amber eyes unfocused as she headed up to the attic in a haze. She looked at the necklace in her hand with a humbled expression, and her grandmother watched with well-hidden shock as the small brunette put the box aside and stared wordlessly at the charm that rest in her hands._

"_It's a magic charm," she said softly, not wanting to ruin the atmosphere that wrapped around the two women. "It enables normal humans to use magic."_

"_Like you Mammie?" Blair asked, her voice unusually soft. Her grandmother laughed and wrapped her arm fondly around the younger girl's shoulders, gray and brunette hair curling in wispy strands around her temples._

"_No honey, the magic I use doesn't come from a charm," she said softly. Her witch heritage was a delicate topic, but she trusted Blair to know how to keep a secret. She reached over and pulled the charm from the child's grasp and scooted behind Blair gracefully, clipping the two ends together so that the charm hung around the brunette's neck. "You see, this charm takes people's emotions and turns it into magic that people like you can use." The older woman grasped the eleven year-old's hand and held it in front of her, closing her eyes and channeling her calm into the small trinket around her granddaughter's neck. Blair's eyes grew wider when the humming grew louder and a light purple haze began to form around her small hand. She had seen her grandmother use magic a few times around the house, but this magic was different. More synthetic than natural, and it felt different, lulling the girl into a calm state of mind. _

"_Now say 'Pumpkin, pump-pumpkin, Growing Pumpkin,'" the older woman whispered._

"_Pumpkin," Blair began, her amber eyes glowing eerily as the magic flowed through her veins. "Pump-pumpkin, Growing Pumpkin!"_

_The small girl gasped as the once bare plot around them came to life, various vegetables and flowers growing impossibly fast. The purple haze that had once swirled around her hand now spread out in a circle around her, growth flowing behind. The smoke disappeared and Grandma Sofie smiled at her granddaughter's awe-struck expression._

"_Wow!" Both women turned quickly, spotting a familiar head of pink hair at the gate. Blair's grandmother instantly relaxed as the young girl pushed open the gate, skipping towards the other two._

"_Mizune!" Blair cried happily, getting up to meet her friend and the two quickly embraced. "Did you see what I did? Huh, did 'ya?"_

"_Yep!" Mizune said with an enthusiastic nod, smiling widely and revealing a few missing teeth._

"_Now I can use magic just like you and Mammie!" the brunette said happily as she and her friend walked over the her grandmother, hand in hand. Mizune and Blair had been best friends ever since Blair moved to Hadley when she was still just a baby._

"_Don't go screaming that to the world now," the older woman said concernedly, fearing for both her and the young mouse witch that was Blair's best friend._

"_I won't! Let's go play house Mizune!" Blair said happily_

_The smaller mouse witch smiled widely and the two girls held hands, skipping into the cottage together. The older woman watched them with a smile, glad that Blair had come here instead of staying with her mother in London. 'Now I'll have another chance to get this right,' she thought with a sigh._

**~O**

"So your _grandma _was a witch?" Soul asked. "Not you?"

"I had some magical powers, but I had no way to channel them," Blair explained, her body curled up in Maka's side.

"What about your mother?" Maka asked curiously, rubbing circles in the cat woman's back like her own mother had done for her when she had been young.

"She was a whore in the red light region of London," the older woman said with a shrug. "I never knew her." Maka nodded and leaned back to the ship, urging Blair to continue. "Well it was like that for a few years, just me, my grandma, and Mizune. I was seventeen when _he _came." She spat the word 'he' out like it was poison, and both Maka and Soul turned to her with raised eyebrows.

"Is that the same man you were talking about earlier?" the tiny blonde asked. Blair just shook her head.

"No, he comes in later," she said with a growl, the two cat ears perked on the top of her head flat against her head. "_He _is the man who made me to be like this. Thomas Netherton," she hissed, her amber eyes narrowing. "I'll never forgive him."

**O~**

"_Blair!" Mizune hissed, waving the girl over. The shorter woman trotted over quickly, standing beside the giddy mouse witch._

"_What is it?" the young woman asked, switching the basket she was carrying for one hand to the other. At seventeen, Blair had grown into her own, commanding the attention of every man she passed. Her brunette hair hung straight down to her wide hips, two strands curling in front of her shoulders. Smoky amber eyes watched in awe as a fairly small airship streamed overhead, breaking the sound barrier easily._

"_Wow, I've never seen a ship like that before," she said with awe in her voice. Mizune looked at her with a wide smile. The pink haired mouse witch was just barely taller than Blair, her pink hair swaying happily around her shoulders. Her brown eyes were sparkling mischievously and Blair sighed internally. Nothing good ever came out of that look._

"_Do you know who's on that ship?" she whispered, leaning in conspiratorially. Blair leaned in closer, giggling quietly at her friend. "Thomas Netherton," she breathed. Blair quirked her head to the right in an almost cat-like fashion, her light purple skirt swaying around her calves as she stood up straight._

"_Who now?" she asked. Mizune's jaw dropped, shocked that her friend didn't know who such an important man like Netherton was._

"_Only the head merchant of the Arachnophobia Southern division!" the pink-haired woman said with a roll of her eyes. Blair's face turned down into a frown. She had heard of Arachnophobia, they were a small trading company that had been blooming in the past few years. There were rumors running around that the trading was just a front for a much more sinister purpose, and honestly, Blair just thought it was just one large publicity stunt. _

_She may not have gone to school, but she was still quite smart, and she knew a load of bullshit when she smelled it._

"_Really Mizune, I don't think it's anything to be excited about. You know what Mammie always says, that-"_

"_Arachnophobia is nothing but a bunch of over grown rats looking for a quick buck, I know, I know," Mizune sighed, standing up straight. "But think about it Blair! If I can get him to propose, I can get out of this rinky-dink town and see the world!" The slightly older girl's brown eyes lit up. "Imagine me in an airship! Oh, that would be a dream!" _

_Blair smiled warmly at her friend, wrapping a graceful arm around her friend's shoulders. "Well you go and get 'em Mizune. I don't see why any man in his right mind would dare to reject you!" she said with a laugh. Mizune quickly joined in, and the two girls laughed for a while before their laughter cut off at the commanding "SILENCE!" that rang through the town. Everyone who was anyone in the small town had come to the plaza to see what the huge deal was about, so the entire town seemed to grow silent._

"_PRESENTING THOMAS NETHERTON!" the chubby man screeched, making both young women cringe. He had an awful, high-pitched voice, and it grated against their ears like sand paper._

_The awful man was forgotten as a much taller man with full blonde hair that was pulled into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck strode into town, a fedora pulled down low on his head. Mizune quickly straightened up, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear and flashing her most sultry smile. Blair didn't notice this, she was much too distracted by the man walking through the town, his mahogany eyes sparking. He was extremely handsome, and she fell almost instantly for the powerful man. Not necessarily in love, but definitely lust. _

_He walked past the two young women and came to a stop, turning back towards them. Blair smoothed down the skirt of her light purple dress, dusting imaginary dust off of her dark brown corset. She was glad that she had worn her off the shoulder dress today, since it showed off her creamy skin. The handsome man smiled charmingly at the two and the young women found that they were out of breath. _

"_If all of the women in this town are as beautiful as you two appear to be," he said, his voice as smooth as silk. "Then I have a feeling I will enjoy my stay in this fair town." He caught Mizune's limp hand in his own, brushing his pale lips against her knuckles. Mizune swayed slightly as he repeated the action with Blair's hand, but instead of a simple kiss, his lips parted slightly, his tongue brushing barely against Blair's smooth skin. _

_She shuddered pleasantly, a fire burning in her lower abdomen. She watched him leave, flashing a coy smile over his shoulder before disappearing into the local Inn. Both young women turned and looked at the other, their eyes wide. _

"…_Wow," Blair breathed, still out of breath. "That was… unexpected."_

"_He totally wants me," Mizune said confidently, tossing her hair over her shoulder. She turned to walk away, motioning for Blair to keep up. The brunette stayed behind a few seconds, staring at her hand. The warmth that had settled in her stomach had not disappeared, instead building in intensity. She had never felt like this before, and the feeling made her curious and wanting more. _

_Curiosity killed the cat._

"_MAMMIE!" Blair screamed, tearing into the house. The older woman shot straight up, amber eyes like her granddaughter's filled with terror._

"_What is it Kitty? Are you hurt? Are those men in town bothering you again?" she asked, standing quickly. Blair shook her head._

"_No, no it's not that!" she said, her eyes shining with something that scared Grandma Sofie to her very core. _

_Lust._

"_There was a man in town, he's a merchant, and he came through town-"_

"_So that's what the ruckus was about," the older woman muttered._

"_And he stopped to speak to Mizune and I and- Oh Mammie, he is the most handsome man I've ever seen!" she said dreamily. "And I think he likes me as well!"_

"_Well what does Mizune think?" Grandma Sofie asked as she cleaned up her sewing table. She was Hadley's seamstress, and had been teaching Blair her trade for quite some years._

"_She... well, she plans to seduce him and make him her husband," the seventeen year-old said quietly, looking down at her modest shoes. Her grandmother looked up and her frown grew deeper._

"_Blair-" she began, her tone one of warning._

"_I know!" Blair cried, plopping down into a small wooden chair. "But this man… Mammie, I've never felt anything like this before, and I can't just ignore it."_

"_You may have to in order to save your friendship with Mizune," the older woman explained, sitting in front of her granddaughter._

"_But that's just it, I think he likes me more than her, and I… Oh I don't know what to do!" Blair dropped from the chair to her knees, her head resting in her grandmother's lap._

"_Time will tell how this will play out," the older woman whispered, stroking the woman's hair. Just then, there was a loud knock on the door, and Blair rose to get it. She was surprised to see that the short man from earlier was standing her door. _

"_May I help you?" she asked, remembering the manners her grandmother had burned into her very skull._

"_Yes, I have a message from Master Netherton to a Ms. Blair Graeskar," he said in that horrible voice of his. Blair's amber eyes widened marginally and she wordlessly took the envelope that the pudgy man handed to her._

"_What is it Kitty?" Grandma Sofie asked, rising from her seat slowly. Blair, unable to read (she had dropped out of school at a very early age), passed the note to her grandmother. The older woman read the note quickly and went slightly pale. "It's an invitation to dinner with Mr. Netherton," she said, the slightest hint of disapproval in her voice. Blair's face lit up, and she turned back to the stocky man with a wide smile._

"_Tell Master Netherton that I happily accept his invitation to dinner and look forward to seeing him!" she said happily. The stocky man nodded and after bidding both women good night with that awful high-pitched voice, he disappeared._

"_Blair, you need to be careful around this man," Grandma Sofie said, still holding the invitation in her slightly wrinkled hand as Blair flew past, heading for her room. "I don't like the sound of him."_

"_Is that the grandmother or the witch talking?" Blair asked, stopping at the door of her room to look her grandmother in the eye._

"_Both," she said, her voice barely louder that a whisper. Blair frowned slightly, but shook off the warning like a wet dog would do to the rain._

"_I understand your concern, but I'm still going to dinner. I love you Mammie, but I need to start looking for a husband, and who better to start with than a young successful merchant?"_

"_What about Mizune," her grandmother shoot back, poison laced with concern in her words. Blair looked down at her feet, a frown on her face._

"_He sent me the invitation, not her. It's clear who he favors, and she cannot be angry at me for winning a man's favor over her," the dark haired woman said, looking back up at her grandmother. The two Graeskar women stared each other down for a few moments before Grandma Sofie sighed, suddenly looking her age._

"_Fine then, do whatever you wish. I am clearly no longer the boss of you, and you must learn from your own mistakes." Blair nodded grimly before smiling widely at her grandmother._

"_Thank you Mammie! Now come on, I think I have the perfect dress!"_

**~O**

"The night was perfect," Blair whispered roughly, her eyes filled with unshed tears behind her fury. "He was the perfect gentleman, and it continued like that for a few months. Mizune eventually found out, and she immediately cut all ties with me. She was furious and I can't blame her, but I was stupid then. When he proposed a year after arriving, I accepted immediately, and I moved to London with him for a few months before we were married."

At this point, both Maka and Soul were silent, their eyes wide. Maka had stopped rubbing the woman's back, instead sticking to watching her with moss-green eyes. Soul was scowling, sharp teeth peeking out from curled back lips.

"It was then that I discovered who he truly was," she hissed. "He was a horrid man, hideously in debt and abusive. He made beating me a sport, and I was terrified of him when he came back to the house after he had been drinking."

**O~**

_The eighteen your old cried out as her fiancé grabbed a hold of her hair, pulling her up roughly. His once handsome and charming smile was now a twisted and lecherous sneer, and his clear mahogany eyes were clouded with alcohol._

"_What's wrong Kitty?" he hissed maliciously, ignoring the woman's cries of pain as his lips brushed against her ear. "I'm just showing you who's the man of the house." With this he threw her against a wall, a loud, pained gasp rushing past her bloodied lips. Her body felt like it was on fire, and not in the good way. He laughed evilly and staggered forward. Blair braced herself for the hits she knew were coming, and curled into herself. _

_That night, the London air was thick with the sound of her screams._

**~O**

"I was horrified at my mistake, and after a month, broke off the engagement. I hurried back home as quickly as I could, thinking that that would be the end of it." The cat woman laughed bitterly, tears rolling silently down her cheeks. "I was never more wrong in my life."

"Blair," Maka whispered, her eyes filled with concern and sympathy. "If you need to stop-"

"No." The older woman shook her head. "You deserve to know." She took a deep breath and plowed bravely on. "It was a week after I had come home when he came looking for me."

**O~**

"_Blair." _

_The young woman in question looked up, surprised to see a familiar head of pink hair standing in the gateway. "Mizune!" she gasped, striding forward quickly. "Oh god Mizune, I am so sorry! I was stupid and blind!" The mouse witch watched with cold eyes as her former friend stood before her. "Thomas wasn't worth ruining our friendship," she cried, her amber eyes sad. "He's not worth anything!"_

"_Well, that hurts my feelings." The young seamstress's head jerked upright, turning slowly. There he stood, his arm wrapped around Grandma Sofie's neck as he strode casually out of her home. Grandma Sofie thrashed and fought, but she was old and weak. Panicked, Blair looked around, surprised to see that Netherton's crew had surrounded the small cottage. "And after all we had been through," he continued, looking almost disappointed._

"_Let go of me you beast!" the older witch screamed, her amber eyes sparking like fire. Her gray hair whipped around her face in the magically induced wind that she had produced, trying to escape the merchant's grasp in any way she could._

"_STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Blair cried out, beginning to march forward, but a pair of strong, feminine arms held her back. She turned her head quickly and hissed at her ex-best friend's cold grin._

"_You can't hurt me like that and not expect me to return the favor, can you?" Netherton asked, his brown eyes cold. This stopped Blair cold and for the first time she noticed the long sword in his right hand. She looked back up at her grandmother and they shared a silent look of horror._

"_NO!" she screeched, her eyes wide in panic. With a smooth, almost graceful, movement, he brought the sword around, easily cutting through the older woman's frail skin. Bright red blood stained the front of Grandma Sofie's dress, and Blair screamed as her grandmother fell to the ground, her body limp and cold. The powerful wind died suddenly and Blair's entire body shook. "MAMMIE!" she screeched, hot tears running down her cheeks. __**"MAMMIEEEE!"**_

"_I never liked that old woman," Netherton said coldly, wiping his blade as easily as if it had been an animal's throat he had cut, and not Blair's beloved grandmother. The brunette woman fell to her knees, Mizune still holding her with a malicious smile. Sobs broke through her lips as she stared at her grandmother's body. The once colorful garden was stained in red, small droplets of the horrible liquid covering everything. _

"_Now what to do with you," the merchant said suddenly, snapping Blair out of her mourning. He strode over to her, as calmly as if he were taking an evening stroll and Blair struggled against the pink-haired woman's grip viciously as he caught her chin in one blood stained hand. He studied her intently as she fought and screamed, amber eyes shining wildly._

"_YOU HORRIBLE BASTARD!" she screeched. "YOU HORRIBLE, HEARTLESS, SICK, TWISTED, __**BASTARD**__! I'LL KILL YOU! __**I'LL KILL YOU AND LET YOU BURN IN HELL WHERE YOU BELONG!**__" she screamed, her throat raw. The blonde man frowned, and with his emotionless mask never slipping, slapped her hard across the face. He stood and turned to Mizune. He smiled charmingly and brushed his knuckles against her jaw. _

"_Take her to my ship darling," he cooed, Mizune smiling lustfully at the attention. "We can fetch quite a price for her in the Black." With a nod, Mizune leaned in close to Blair's ear and whispered a quick incantation. The younger woman instantly feel asleep, her amber eyes rolling back into her head as she fell forward. With a small "Hup!" Netherton threw her over his shoulder, and turned away from the body lying just a few feet away._

_He was no stranger to murder._

"_Sir," one man asked, stepping forward and quickly bringing his hand up in a salute. "What would you like us to do with the old woman?" Netherton stopped, looking over his shoulder at the Graeskar home and frowned._

"_**Burn her, along with this horrid excuse of a home." **_

**~O**

Maka covered her mouth, tears rolling down her unusually pale cheeks. Soul was silent, his eyes wide. He tried to picture Blair's grandmother, but could only imagine a shorter-than-average blonde pilot, red blood pouring into the earth. The image made him sick to his stomach and he shook his head of the evil thoughts.

"I-I need to be alone for a moment," Blair croaked out, amber eyes filled with tears. The young aeronauts nodded quietly, and Soul motion for Maka to follow as he stood silently (it was unnerving how quiet the captain could be on his feet).

"We'll give you a few minutes," he said quietly, his rough voice low. Blair nodded silently, tears flowing easily. The two left the room and after quietly heading into the kitchen, the red-eyed man turned to Maka with a frown. "Do you believe her?" he asked, well-toned arms crossed over his chest. Maka was silent, ash blonde bangs hiding her eyes.

Silence reigned over the room for a few moments, and Soul opened his mouth to ask the question again when Maka spoke. "Yes," she said, her voice firm as she looked up, her moss green eyes filled with fire. "Yes I do. No one can come up with a story like that Soul," she said quietly. "It's just not possible."

"What about this Netherton guy?" Soul asked, quirking his head slightly to the side. "Have you ever heard of him?"

"Once or twice, yes," Maka said grimly, nodding once. "But what does she mean 'the Black'? I don't think I've heard of that." Soul quirked an eyebrow.

"Seriously Maka? You've never heard of the Black? And you've been a Shibusen pilot for how long exactly?" he asked, his tone mocking. Maka's glare silenced him, and he sighed. "The 'Black' is the black market, genius. They sell all sorts of things there, merchandise, drugs, secrets-"

"People," Maka breathed, her eyes wide. Soul's frown grew and he nodded once. The room was silent for a few seconds before there was a cough in the doorway.

"Are you guys done talking to Kitty-chan?" Patti asked timidly, stepping into the kitchen. Maka turned and smiled sadly at the younger girl. Patti was dressed simply in a pale pink nightie, and it was moments like this that reminded Maka that the young markswoman was only seventeen.

"Not yet Patti," she said quietly. "What are you still doing up hon? I thought you had gone to bed an hour ago." Patti quirked an eyebrow.

"Do you really think anyone's going to sleep while there's a possible witch on board?" the teen said, walking past the pilot and captain and grabbing a glass from the cabinets.

"She's not a witch Patti," Soul said, pushing off from where he was leaning on the counter to face the younger teen. "Just a really unlucky lady." Patti stopped and turned towards the two, her baby blue eyes wide.

"Oh," she said quietly. 'Well, I guess I can tell Kiddo to stop worrying." Maka frowned and quirked an eyebrow.

"Patti," she said in a menacing tone of voice. "Are you sleeping in Kidd's room again?" The doctor and markswoman had a very interesting on-and-off relationship. Patti was still too young to stay in any serious relationship, so the handsome 20 year old would always wait patiently while Patti went through her teenage phases. Soul approved of the two (he knew a thing or two about being patient with the woman you truly cared about), but Maka was still a bit iffy about the whole thing.

"Maka," Patti mocked, smiling wickedly. She gulped down her water easily and after throwing Maka a reassuring smile, headed back to Kidd's bunk.

"Hey Patti," Soul called, stopping the seventeen year old. "Tell Kidd that I need him to call some of his contacts, ask them about a woman named Blair Graeskar and Thomas Netherton. It can wait until morning, but I want that to be his first priority tomorrow." Patti smiled and gave him a small salute before trotting back to Kidd's room. The red-eyed captain turned back to Maka, but his eyebrows shot up when she wasn't there. He looked down the hall and just barely saw a familiar head of ash blonde hair disappear down into her room.

"Damn it Maka," he sighed, running long tanned fingers through his stark white hair. "At least wait for me before you go running off."

When he dropped down into the room, Blair had stopped crying, her amber eyes hard and blank. Maka had crawled back into her spot against the hull of the Grigori, and the cat woman had curled up in her lap. Purple hair fell over creamy pale skin in waves, and Maka's hand was playing with one ear perked attentively on Blair's head.

"Okay," Soul said, taking his spot back in his chair. "Keep going Blair. You have our full attention." Blair nodded once, clearing her throat before starting again.

"After Netherton kill… killed Mammie, he held me in the ship's brig. I was tied up for a month, hissing and biting anyone that came near. Eventually we ended up back in London, where I was taken to a man and had the procedure."

Maka quirked an eyebrow. "What procedure?" she asked quietly. Blair's tail swished back and forth as the purple haired woman quirked an eyebrow at the pilot.

"Do you think I was born with these ears and tail?" she said, her tone slightly mocking. Maka blushed and motioned for Blair to continue. "Like I said, I was taken to get the procedure done."

"Anthromorphing," Soul said, his voice a deep grumble. "It's a trend in the Black. Women are given the qualities of an animal before they're put up for sale," he explained quietly, his blood red-eyes narrowed (AN- For some reason, my computer keeps wanting to replace "red-eyes" with "overnight flights". What the fuck Word?). "I thought it was just a rumor."

"I wish it was," the young woman said, her eyes closed. "It was awful. The screams of the other girls, the smell of rotting bodies. The procedure itself was unbearable. Have you ever been shot?" she asked randomly. Both aeronauts nodded, and Blair grinned grimly. "Imagine the pain of that, multiplied by 20, and then add the haze of being doped up so that you can barely think straight."

**O~**

_Blair struggled against the restraints fruitlessly, crying out in pain as the leather restraints bit into her pale flesh. Netherton, the bastard, must have slipped some sort of sleeping pill in her food, for she had woken up after some time strapped to this cold metal table, lying on her stomach._

_Did she also mention that she was completely butt naked? Because she was. Naked._

'_Someone is going to pay for this,' she thought angrily as she heard a door open and slam shut. The sound was ominous, and every bone in her body was telling her to RUN._

"_It's a dangerous procedure," a man droned in a lazy monotone. "She could die."_

"_Or she could live, and make me wealthy beyond my wildest dreams." Blair screeched wordlessly at the smooth voice of her kidnapper, her thrashing growing wilder. "SHUT UP WHORE!" he screamed, grabbing the back of her head viciously before slamming it forward into the metal table. "Continue with the anthomorphication," he hissed, ignoring his ex-fiancé's whimpers of pain. Blair briefly heard the whoosh of a flame coming to life and soon after, the smell of cigarette smoke filled the room._

"_Whatever you say Netherton, she's your investment, not mine." Blair turned her head to the side and watched as a large pale hand sifted through a multitude of sharp knives and tools to her right. She yelped in fear (Blair was scared shitless of knives), and her yelp turned into a hiss when she heard Mizune's cold laugh echo through the room._

"_If you two will please leave," the nameless man said, his tone staying at a strict monotone. "I have to put her under-"_

"_Keep her awake." Blair's amber eyes widened and she once again began to thrash wildly, crimson blood staining the leather bands that held her in place._

"_Ma'am, I don't think-"_

"_You heard me!" Mizune barked, a cold sadism in her tone that scared the amber-eyed woman to the core. "I want her to feel the pain I felt. I want her to suffer as I did."_

"_Mizune," Blair whimpered, hot tears mingling with the dried blood on the table. "Please."_

"_It's too late, slut." With that, the two evil lovers disappeared into the darkest corners of the room. Blair shrieked in rage as she felt the unnamed man wipe the skin at the base of her spine with a disinfectant._

"_Sorry 'bout this kitty-chan," the surgeon whispered, and Blair screamed the most bloodcurdling sound you had ever heard when the skin at the base of her spine was cut wide open. She could barely feel the blood running down her sides through the pain, but she could hear one thing very clearly through the pain-induced haze._

_Netherton and Mizune's cold laughter as Blair's pained screams echoed through the patchwork laboratory._

**~O**

"After a month of rehabilitation, I was put on the Black. Day after day, men came to watch as we were put on parade. The managers dressed us in fine clothing to hide the scars and our protruding bones, and I watched as the other girls were bought. Some didn't make it, the procedure had been too much for them, other's just curled up in a corner and… wasted away. Every night, we would tell stories of when we were young, when we were free. Some had been dropped off at the Black when they were young girls, some, like me, had been ripped from their homes and watched their families be murdered in front of their eyes." Blair stopped, catching her breath and scrunching her eyes closed. "One woman had watched as the managers threw her infant child under the wheels of an apple cart," she spat bitterly. Maka gasped loudly, and Soul reached over quietly to take her hand in his.

"How," Maka said quietly, her voice cracking. "How long did this go on for?"

"Two years," Blair answered, purple strands of hair covering her face. "After two years of being on the market and being skipped over, Netherton ordered for me to be moved to the Japanese division of the Black. There they died my hair, ears and tail, and gave me these," Blair growled, cupping her overlarge breasts in her pale hands.

'_I knew they weren't real,' _Maka thought wryly, her moss green eyes dull.

"They put me back on the Black, but they took better care of the women in Japan. We were well fed, and they let us stay in richly furnished rooms. However, every morning, they would dope us. Made us calm and doe-eyed, ripe for the picking. I guess my temperament was what had steered potential buyers away," Blair said with a cold laugh. "Because not three months later _he _came."

"Is this the man you were talking about earlier?" Maka asked. Blair nodded once, a small, sad smile on her lips.

"Yes." She threw her head back and laughed, startling the two aeronauts. "He really loved me," she laughed out, tears running down her pale cheeks once again. "The poor, pathetic man."

**O~**

_Blair giggled dizzily as the man led her forward. He was attractive, but Blair couldn't focus on his features for too long due to the drugs still in her system._

"_It'll take a day or two to wear off," she vaguely remembered one of the managers saying. "And afterwards she might be a little… wild, but don't worry she'll calm down eventually."_

_The cat woman stared at the ship in front of her in awe, her jaw dropping and revealing two sets of sharp canines. The man that bought her, Stanasloik if she remembered correctly, had asked that she be adjusted to better suit life aboard a war ship and the surgeons in Japan had happily agreed. Her senses had been sharpened to match with her cat ears and slitted eyes, her nails were sharpened and reinforced with diamonds in the tips._

"_This is your new home darling," the dark haired man said, his equally dark eyes shining with excitement. Blair smiled sweetly and proceeded to fall flat on her face. After a few minutes and quite a few awkward stares, the two reached his chambers. The captain led her gently towards the large king-sized bed. "And this is your bed."_

"_Don't you mean your bed," Blair giggled, her amber eyes foggy and glassed over. The older man smiled widely and the small part of Blair's brain that was capable of coherent thought shuddered at the almost hungry look in his eyes. He sat down next to the drugged woman and brushed her neck with the back of his hand. _

_Blair struggled for a few moments, but the haze that fogged up her mind made it hard for her to fight. Besides, it felt good, his hands traveling up her body, his tongue trailing lazily up her stomach and across her swollen breasts. She felt something rub against her inner thigh and she squirmed uncomfortably. 'No,' she thought. 'No, I don't want this! Let me go! LET ME OUT!' She hadn't realized that she had said all of these things aloud until Stanasloik pulled back and smiled dangerously at her. She shrunk back into the overstuffed bed, her amber eyes wide. With a laugh, the older man pinned her to the bed, her clothes discarded impatiently. _

"_Welcome to the Recluse," the dark haired man whispered in a perked purple ear, leaning in close to the struggling woman. "You're mine now Blair."_

**~O**

"After a while, I figured out that it was better to just go with it," Blair said with a cold hiss. "If I struggled, he would hit me, if I cried out, he would cut into my skin with a hot blade. Some nights I would just stay up at night and wonder, 'Who's worse? The man who would murder and sell an innocent woman for a quick buck, or the man that bought her and tore that innocence away?' Eventually, I got sick of wondering and just… stopped thinking altogether. I would always pretend to be doped up, sweet and wide-eyed, playing nice with the crew and such. Two years passed like that, and I knew that if I didn't get off the ship, I was going to go mad. So one day, I was rifling through the drawers of Stanasloik's room, and I came across a box that had all of my personal belongings in it," Blair stopped, and a wide, if not evil, smile split her face in half. "Including my grandmother's magic charm that she gave me all those years ago."

"So that's how you escaped!" Maka cheered, her green eyes sparking.

"Yup," Blair nodded, a devious smile on her face. "I made it out, and after four years I was free again."

**O~**

"_What are you doing!" Blair whipped her head around, her eyes wide as she watched her captor storm into the room. She hadn't been expecting him back for another hour or so, and had figured that this was the best time for an escape. She was in the middle of grabbing the many jewels and fancy things that the dark-haired man had bought her, and she narrowed her eyes dangerously as she saw him pull out a shiny pistol from a holster on his hip. She watched in twisted amusement as his eyes widened at the cold, clear amber eyes that were trained on him with sniper-like precision._

"_Don't come any closer," the cat woman hissed, barring her sharp teeth. Her sharpened claws twitched at her sides as she tied off the bag holding her prize, holding the bag close to her bare chest._

"_Blair, put that bag down," he threatened, his eyes narrowed. The cat woman shook her head wildly, her amber eyes narrowed._

"_Like hell I will," Blair shot back, surprising Stanasloik by the lack of any ditz or flirt in her tone. The rubber boots on her feet squeaked loudly as she stepped towards the door. The Recluses' captain immediately brought his pistol level with her forehead._

"_Don't do this love, you won't survive!" Stanasloik yelled. He stepped forward, not noticing how Blair was shaking in fury. " Now just be a good little girl and put the bag down-" He reached out and grabbed her hand, and in a movement almost too fast for him to see, Blair jerked out of his hold and her hand shot forward, slashing across his right eye with a scream._

"_STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Blair shrieked, ignoring his screams of pain and the blood that stained her chest as it spurted out of the four scratches that ran across his face. She jumped back, landing on the balls of her feet as he fell to the floor, clutching his face. "Pumpkin-" she began to chant, watching in satisfaction as his eye grew to the size of a saucer as purple smoke swirled around her body. "Pump pumpkin, TRANSFORMING PUMPKIN!" _

_In an explosion of light, Stanasloik was thrown across the room, his hands falling down from his face and revealing a glassy white eye that was covered in the crimson blood from where Blair had slashed his face. He didn't see Blair disappear in the smoke with a cry. He didn't see a purple cat shoot down the hall, a bag hanging from her mouth as she ran from the room. He did hear the cries of his crew as they shot at the streak of purple as it jumped through an open bay window into the streets of Lost Island port, but then everything went black._

**~O**

"And now you're here," Soul said, his arms once again crossed on the back of his chair. Blair nodded sleepily, yawning loudly.

"Yup, I'm here now," she said, her voice low and soft. "I spent a few weeks on the street, and then I smelled fish and came on board in search of some food. You know what happens from there-" Blair was interrupted by another yawn, and Maka smiled slightly. The purple circles under Blair's eyes matched the shade of her hair and a quick glance at the clock showed that they had spent nearly four hours listening to Blair's story.

"You should get some sleep," Maka said, holding the taller woman up. "We'll take care of everything in the morning, okay?" With a nod, Blair curled up Maka's lap, clutching her hand as if the world would stop turning if she ever let go. Maka smiled at the sleeping cat woman and looked back up at Soul. Her smile dropped at the look in his eyes and she resisted the urge to hide the purple-haired woman behind her back.

"Maka," he said, his crimson eyes sad. "You know she can't stay."

"We'll talk about it later Soul," Maka said coldly, lying down next to Blair and snuggling close to her. "Good night."

"Maka you can't just avoid this-"

"Good. Night," Maka hissed, her moss green eyes looking like boric acid burning. Soul frowned down at the two young women and sighed heavily, slumping as if the world's weight was on his shoulders. He stepped forward and though Maka stiffened slightly, she relaxed when Soul just reached down and ruffled her hair like he always did. The blonde 19 year old grabbed his hand and gave it a small squeeze.

"Thanks for staying with me Soul," she said softly, a small smile on her lips. Soul smirked easily and with one hand in his pocket, leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her temple (payback for kissing him on the cheek earlier).

"Anytime Maka," he said with a smile, smirking internally at the blush that covered her face, "anytime." He left the room silently and a few minutes later, the only sounds in the room were the two women's breath as they slept peacefully.

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

**V**

**V**

**V**


	4. Lovers and Warriors

**O~**

**Blair Arc: Chapter 3**

**Lovers and Warriors**

_(This chapter is rated T for language and misuse of the Captain Exposition Hat)_

**~O**

"Yeah, of course Bu-tan can go wake up Soul-kun, Maka-chan! No, it's not a problem!" Blair said sarcastically as she hopped onto the desk. "What? A heavy sleeper? Oh Bu-tan's sure it's not that bad!" she growled, relaying her earlier conversation with Maka to herself. She swished her little cat bottom and hopped from the desk to the first shelf, yelping when she knocked over a photo frame. It fell to the floor with a loud crash, and yet, Soul kept sleeping.

Like he had been for the past 30 minutes.

'_Heavy sleeper my ass,' _Blair thought. _'He sleeps like the dead!' _In fact, if his loud snores weren't echoing through the room, the cat-woman would have thought that he _was_ dead. With one final "Hup!", Blair was perched at the highest point in the captain's room. Jumping on Soul from up here wasn't the most tactful approach, but after half an hour of screaming, biting, pawing, and punching, Blair had no patience left. She giggled quietly at how utterly ridiculous he looked when he was asleep (long limbs sprawled out all over the bed, trail of drool leading to his pillow, shirt scrunched up around his chest), and then pushed herself up as far against the wall as she could. Swishing her bottom one last time for luck, she pounced.

Cats are not typically meant to fly, but Blair arched beautifully through the air towards the bed, her tail streaming like a flag behind her. For a few wonderful moments, Blair felt pure euphoria burn through her veins.

But then Soul flipped to his right, his hand connecting with Blair's side and sending her slamming into the wall of his cabin.

"MRAOW!" Blair screeched, shifting back into a woman after she had plopped unceremoniously onto the floor. "YOU JERK THAT HURT!" she yelled at the near-comatose man.

"Mmmm." Blair quirked her head to the side as Soul made the first noise she had heard in half an hour. "Maka, " he mumbled. Blair's confused expression shifted to a mischievous smirk.

"So Soul-kun? Dreaming about Maka-chan huh?" she said, her voice coming out more like a purr. "Well, let's see if we can't startle you awake." She snuck over to his bedside (though she could've been screaming and banging pots together and he would _still_ be sleeping like a baby), and placed a hand at her throat. "Pumpkin, pump-pumpkin, Talking Pumpkin," she whispered, magic flowing easily through her finger tips into her throat.

"Testing, testing, one two three," Blair said, smirking evilly when Maka's voice came out of her mouth and instead of her own. She leaned in close to Soul, her lips right by his ear. "Soul," she breathed, the word coming out almost like a moan. Soul smiled lopsidedly in his sleep, making Blair giggle internally. "Soul," she moaned again, watching in barely contained amusement as the albino man squirmed in his sleep. "Soul," she whispered, her lips curling up in a smirk. "The engine's on fire."

"WHAT!" Soul shot straight up, his red eyes wide as they danced around the room. They landed on an innocently startled cat sitting on his bed. "B-Blair?" he gasped out, clearly confused. Blair lowered her paw and smiled sweetly at the now-awake captain.

"Oh hi Soul-kun!" she said happily, acting like she had just walked in. "You're already awake! Maka-chan said it would forever to get you up, but Bu-tan guesses she was wrong!" Soul watched in a confused stupor as Blair hopped down from the bed and trotted over the hatch that lead up to the main hall. "Breakfast in ten!" she said happily, back in human form as she climbed the ladder back upstairs.

He sat there for a few moments, still very confused before he shook his head and stood up. There's no way he'd be able to get back to sleep now (or back to that wonderful, if not somewhat concerning, dream), so he might as well get dressed.

"Mission accomplished Maka-chan!" Blair said happily, hopping up so that she was sitting on the kitchen counter, two long legs swinging back and forth. She gave the shorter blonde a quick salute and Maka laughed quietly.

"Wow, it only took you 30 minutes!" she said, eyebrows high. "I think that's a new record for a first-timer!" Blair beamed at the praise, and gave a small content purr.

The entire crew, minus a certain white-haired captain, had assembled themselves in the kitchen. When Blair had first showed up with Maka, still wearing Soul's shirt along with a pair of the pilot's pants, there had been a few suspicious looks, but Maka had waved them off with a smile and a few well placed glares. Now Blair sat on the counter watching as the crew interacted with each other. It was like one huge family, only nobody was related (with the exception of Patti and Liz). Maka and Kidd were mixing eggs by the sink, laughing at something Liz said. BlackStar and Patti were arguing in the corner while making some toast, but they kept laughing so Blair didn't think it was anything too serious. Tsubaki was standing at the stove cooking some ham and watching over the proceedings, and when Soul came into the room with a yawn, he draped a friendly arm over her shoulder and made jabs at BlackStar with Patti.

The cat woman smiled widely and Maka noticed this out of the corner of her eye. "What?" she asked happily, her green eyes sparkling.

"It's just," Blair started, staring at her feet with a smile. "It's been a while since I've heard people actually laugh. You know, besides a few evil chuckles and maniacal laughter every now and again." The entire crew was listening to her now, the breakfast they had been making forgotten for a few moments.

"Well, we laugh at BlackStar all the time," Patti offered helpfully, making Blair giggle and BlackStar sputter indignantly.

"Hey! No one as little as you can insult a big guy like me! I AM THE GREAT BLACK-" Tsubaki covered her lover's mouth with a graceful hand and shot an apologetic look at the laughing cat woman. The remaining crew members got back to work, all except for Soul. He stared at the older woman for a few moments before turning and looking at Maka. Maka pointedly ignored him, much to Blair's surprise, and continued chatting it up with Kidd.

Soul sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Maka was giving him the cold shoulder, and he knew what that meant. She was pissed. _Extremely_ pissed.

"Maka," he started, walking over so that he was standing near the shorter woman. "Can I speak to you for a moment-"

"Say Blair," Maka said, cutting Soul off. "Do you mind setting the table for us?" With a quick nod, Blair hopped off the counter and practically skipped over to the cabinets. The albino man pouted moodily, his red eyes narrowing.

"Maka, that isn't funny-"

"Where are the plates Maka-chan?" Blair called from across the room, and Maka instantly trotted over to the older woman's side, leaving Soul with his mouth open and his eyes narrowed. After a few more minutes, the entire crew had settled down at the table. Patti, Liz, Kidd, and Soul on one side and Maka, Blair, BlackStar, and Tsubaki on the other. Everyone laughed as Blair attacked her food, looking as if she hadn't eaten in years.

"Tsubaki-chan, I could kiss you right now. This is fantastic!" the cat woman moaned, shoveling down another plate of eggs. BlackStar stood abruptly and made as if to leave.

"Wait! Let me go grab my camera first-"

"Sit down BlackStar," Maka growled, glaring at the snickering man. The tall blue-haired man laughed loudly before plopping back down in his chair, one arm wrapped tight around Tsubaki's shoulders.

"I'm glad you like it Blair-chan," Tsubaki said, her quiet voice filled with happiness. The conversation flowed around the table like this for a while, but by the end of breakfast the whole crew knew something was up. Maka was happy and energetic as always, but throughout the whole meal she didn't say a single word to the white-haired man sitting across from her. '_What did that idiot do this time?' _the crew all thought, sighing internally.

"Hey Blair," Maka said suddenly, turning towards the woman that was sitting next to her. "Do you want me to take you on a tour of the ship after breakfast?" Blair swallowed quickly and smiled widely, pearly white canines flashing.

"That sounds wonderful Maka-chan!" she replied happily.

"Maka," Soul said quietly, his red eyes hard. "You still have to finish up the work on the engine and then get us into the air." The shorter blonde pilot turned and Soul could have sworn that his entire body had frozen over from the cold glare she was shooting him.

"Um," Tsubaki said nervously. "I-I could always give Blair-chan the tour!" Blair, Maka, and Soul all turned towards the quiet Japanese woman and Maka smiled warmly, a sharp contrast to the glare she had been shooting at Soul.

"That would be wonderful Tsubaki! Thank you!" she said happily. Blair squealed happily and threw her arms around Tsubaki's shoulders in a tight hug.

"Thank you Tsubaki-chan!" she cheered happily. BlackStar watched the show of affection between the two large-busted women with wide eyes and turned to glare at Maka.

"I can't believe you didn't let me go get my camera," he growled.

"Pervert," Maka shot back easily.

"Virgin."

"Gunpowder for brains."

"Goggles."

"MAKA-CHOP!" BlackStar groaned from his spot on the floor while Maka stood tall (well, not really) over him, a heavy, fairly large, wrench spinning in her palm. Blair watched this with wide eyes and wondered briefly where the 19 year old got the makeshift weapon from, but then saw a small leather pouch connected to the pilot's belt.

"I remember the days when you only used a book," Soul grumbled warily, scooting back slightly in his chair. Maka turned and pointed her wrench in his direction.

"Don't test me Evans," she growled out threateningly. Soul's eyes widened marginally at the threat, and though Maka was at least talking to him again, it still was a very bad situation. '_Screw pissed,' _he thought, slightly panicked, '_she's LIVID.' _"Boys get to do dishes today," she said with an evil smile.

"What?" the three men whined. BlackStar shot straight up and pointed an accusatory finger at the blonde.

"No fair! We did dishes yesterday!" he yelled. The crew had spilt the chores up by gender, and though they normally kept it fair, the schedule was pretty much thrown to the wind at times like this.

"Well too bad," Maka said with an impatient flick of her hair. "We girls outnumber you five to three now, so what we say, goes." The three men grumbled again, and both Kidd and BlackStar looked towards their lovers to help them out of this situation. But Patti and Tsubaki just waved and trotted off after Maka, Blair, and Liz, leaving the three alone in the now quiet kitchen.

"Damn it Soul!" BlackStar snapped. "How come whenever _you_ get Maka mad, _we_ end up paying for it?" Soul glared heavily at the weapons expert and stood gracefully from his chair, one hand in his pocket and the other running through his colorless hair.

"She's just pissed because Blair can't stay on the ship," he said with a sigh, picking up the dishes from his side of the table and taking them to the sink. Kidd nodded in the background.

"That's understandable," he said, his voice smooth as silk. "She saved that poor woman, she's bound to feel some attachment to Blair. But you're right Soul, she can't stay. This is a battleship, and she is not properly trained or Shibusen certified."

"Not to mention that there's already too much damn estrogen on this ship," BlackStar grumbled as he joined Soul at the sink. The three boys worked in silence for a few more moments until BlackStar challenged Soul to a pan balancing contest, and then the kitchen went straight to hell.

**O~**

"Okay!" Tsubaki said happily, clapping her hands together twice. "Let the official tour begin!" Blair and Tsubaki had moved from the dining room to the bridge to start the tour and Blair was practically vibrating with excitement. She had only seen a little bit of the ship yesterday and this morning, so she was looking forward to seeing what the rest of the ship looks like.

"This room is the bridge, where all of the magic happens, not literally of course," Tsubaki said, sweeping her arms out wide and turning slightly on the spot. The bridge wasn't particularly large, with two stations on either side and below it a lowered platform in front of a wide window panel. Behind that panel was a small balcony type ledge, wrapping around the front of the ship. Pipes ran along the walls and under the floor, and every once and awhile, steam or some strange colored smoke would come out of a random pipe. Blair could see the Lost Island port waking up from where she was standing, and was fascinated by the sight for a few moments.

"The Captain has requested that you not come up here without permission, especially not if we get in any fights, 'kay?" Tsubaki said, breaking the trance Blair had been in. Blair nodded once, her purple hair jumping slightly at the jerky movement. "This is normally where Maka-chan sits," the Japanese woman gestured to the chair on the right, "and this one is where I sit." Tsubaki sat in her chair on the left, happily spinning a little in her chair.

"Where does Soul-kun sit?" Blair asked curiously. "He's the captain right? Doesn't he have some sort of special captain's chair or something?" Tsubaki giggled once and shook her head.

"Nope. He can't work the communication hub, which is my job, to save his life, and Maka-chan only lets him fly every once in a great while. He's not the best pilot, but he can get the job done. Kidd is the only one allowed to fly this ship without Maka's permission, and that's because he's had his license longer than she has," Tsubaki explained.

"Okay then," Blair said with a small smile. "What's next?" Tsubaki got up gracefully and led Blair down a few stairs to a short hall with five hatches set back into the walls, three on one side, two on the other. They were very close to the floor with what looked like five handles running down to the floor.

"These are the crew's dorms," Tsubaki said. "That one is the Captain's, then Maka-chan's, and on the other side is Kidd-kun's, the Thompson's, then BlackStar and mine." Blair looked over at the raven-haired girl and smiled deviously.

"That reminds me, what's going on with you and BlackStar-kun?" Tsubaki blushed prettily and Blair giggled at her embarrassed expression.

"We've been… well not exactly dating, but together for nearly two years now, and eventually the Captain just said 'Just share a room already!' And we did," Tsubaki shrugged. "Been 'living together' for nearly a year now." Blair smiled and nudged her on.

"On to the next room!" The two girls stepped into the dining room/kitchen again and Soul and BlackStar looked up from their work to scowl at them.

"Save us," Soul mock whispered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at their ebony-haired friend.

Who, much to Blair's shock, was measuring the distance between stacks of cups with a ruler.

"There!" he exclaimed loudly, his amber eyes lighting up happily. "Now they are perfectly symmetrical in every way!"

"Dude, we still have like three more cups to put away," BlackStar deadpanned, glaring holes into the doctor's head. Kidd stopped in his manic exclamations about symmetry and all was silent for a moment.

He fell to the ground, his rear sticking straight up in the air as he pounded childishly on the floor. Blair's right eye twitched visibly at the sight of a full grown man throwing a fit over cups. "YOU'RE RIGHT! I'M COMPLETE GARBAGE, I CAN'T EVEN PUT AWAY CUPS RIGHT! I SHOULD GO DIE!" Tsubaki sighed wearily, heading towards the lever near some shelves.

"You calling Patti?" Soul asked, rubbing his temples as BlackStar screamed at the crying Kidd on the floor.

"Yep," Tsubaki replied simply. She moved the lever down to the slot titled "T" and waited a few moments for it to click.

" 'Ellooooo?" Patti sang through the intercom. Tsubaki simply pointed the microphone in Kidd's direction and after about five seconds, Blair heard the youngest crew member say "Oh boy, not again."

"You better go get 'im Patti," Liz said in the background, her voice slightly muffled. "I don't have the patience today."

"Hai," Patti sighed wearily, and Blair watched as the hatch that led to what Tsubaki had said to be the Thompson's room swung back further into the wall, revealing a head of bright blonde hair. Patti hopped off the ladder into the hall and trotted down the hall with a small, exasperated smile.

"Finally," Soul groaned, stepping back and leaning against the wall. BlackStar moved aside as well, and Patti crouched down next to her lover.

"This may take awhile," she said, turning back to the other crew members with a smile. "Soul, BlackStar, I'll be sure Kiddo finishes up for you two." The two men were out of the room before she could finish and all three women rolled their eyes.

"Have fun Patti-chan," Tsubaki said with a weary smile as she pushed Blair out of the room. Patti waved them off with a small wave of her hand, and soon the two were heading down an even longer hall. Tsubaki pointed out a set of stairs that led down to the cargo hold and then the two reached the end of the hall. Loud music could be heard blaring in this room and Tsubaki had to slam her fist against the wall three times for the young woman inside to notice her.

"Oh hey guys!" Maka said happily, pushing her goggles back with her thumb. There was a smudge of grease on her cheek (and pretty much everywhere else), but the young blonde didn't seem to care as she trotted over to her two friends, flicking off the radio that stood on a shelve in the corner as she passed. "How's the tour so far?"

"It's so cool!" Blair said happily, amber eyes sparkling. "Your ship is awesome!"

Somewhere down the hall, the three women heard a gruff voice yell "My ship" loudly.

"Fuck you!" Maka screeched back. "Stupid, arrogant, son-of-a-" she grumbled, angry green eyes trying to burn through solid steel and into a certain albino's skull.

"Do you think you could show Blair-chan how the engine works?" Tsubaki said quickly, stopping Maka's rant short.

"Yeah sure," she said, blinking once. "It's kind of complicated though…"

"Just give me the dumbed-down version, " Blair said with a shrug. Maka smiled eagerly and grabbed Blair's hand, dragging her forward so that she stood next to the shorter woman.

"Okay, so you see that really big barrel-type thing in the back corner?" Maka asked, pointing out the rust-colored drum easily. Blair nodded once and Maka plowed bravely on. "That's where all of the water is. The Grigori is powered mainly by steam, with a bit of fuel and magic thrown in there."

"Magic?" Blair questioned, quirking an eyebrow.

"I'll explain later," Maka waved her hand much like Patti had earlier. "Anyways, the water travels from that drum to the steam chamber, where, as the name implies, it's converted into steam. It goes through a few more pipes until it reaches-" Maka dragged Blair closer to the engine and pointed to a large circular grate towards the end "that turban. The engine then uses that to spin this whole complicated thing, and that, my friend, is where the magic comes in." Maka grinned mischievously as she dropped Blair's arm and with two surprisingly well-toned arms, pulled down on one of the engine's rails. The whole thing turned slowly and Maka stopped turning it after a half rotation. With a wide, proud smile, she pointed to a small box soldered onto the core of the engine. There was a slot where you can put in a filter, and Blair was surprised to feel a strong concentration of magic coming from the box.

"That is the MPV core, and what keeps this baby in the sky," the 19 year old said proudly. "MPVs, or Magical Power Volts, are turned into pure energy through the filter and the ship uses that to power its forward thrust and maneuverability."

"Where do you get the magic from?" Blair asked.

"Well," Tsubaki cut in, stepping forward. "Lord Death made a peace agreement with the witches nearly 2 hundred years ago after the Great War, and one of the agreements was that in exchange for protection, the witches would come to a Shibusen location once a year and give a little bit of their magic power into a large storage drum. Shibusen uses that magic to power many of its ships and towns, not to mention the Magic Holo System." Blair nodded, knowing her history well. Almost 4 hundred years ago, there had been a war between the Death gods and the witches over land. It was a long war, lasting 2 hundred years, and the newly formed Shibusen Alliance had just barely claimed victory at the battle of the Baba Yaga Mountain Range. Shibusen took the land, but showed extreme mercy towards the witches by offering them a peace treaty. Blair's grandmother had been a huge supporter of the peace treaty, and Blair remembered staying with Mizune as a little girl once a year while her grandmother went out of town for a few days, to come back looking a little tired, but victorious. (AN- I'm raping the fucking Captain Exposition Hat with my pants on.)

Blair also knew that recently many witches had begun to question the fairness of the agreement, and fighting back. Three years ago, out of nowhere, the once peaceful Arachnophobia Trading Company slaughtered a fleet of Shibusen ships, and now they were trapped in this new war.

"Yep," Maka said with a nod of her head, planting both hands on her hips. "So, that's pretty much how the Grigori works."

"What kind of ship is the Grigori?" Blair asked.

"It's a Resonance class cargo ship," Maka said with a proud smile, stroking the hull of the ship. "Back when it was just me and Soul, he let me pick out a ship for my sixteenth birthday. I fixed this baby up, took her to Shibusen where they added on some weapons as a precaution, and then we started transporting cargo around the world." Blair blinked once and quirked her head to the side.

"Cargo? But I thought this was a battleship?"

"Oh it is," Maka reassured, nodding once. "We were doing a normal medicine run when all of a sudden, we were attacked by an Arachnophobia ship, the Widow. Scariest moment of my life," the young pilot admitted. "Giant black ship came outta' nowhere, started firing at us. Didn't matter to them that we were just a cargo ship, they saw the Shibusen emblem on our left wing and they started firing."

"Five minutes later they sinking in the Atlantic with two holes straight through their engine." The three women looked up, staring wide eyed at the albino man that leaned against the doorjamb. "Week after that, we got called into the closest Shibusen branch, they gave us a few more guns and moved us into the battle division," Soul said, pushing off the doorjamb and stepping into the engine room. "Gave us six months to put together a crew and then sent us on our merry way." Maka watched with wide eyes as her captain came into the room, standing between Maka and the two other women. "Now if you two ladies excuse us, Maka and I need to have a little chat."

"Oh," Tsubaki said with wide eyes. "Yeah, sure."

"See you later Maka," Blair said with a small, sad smile. Maka glared at Soul, who was glaring right back, and Blair left feeling uneasy. "Looks like Mom and Dad are fighting," she whispered to Tsubaki, who giggled quietly before dragging the cat woman out of the engine room and down some stairs.

"Now's not a good time for me Soul," Maka said slowly, turning her back towards the taller man. "Maybe you can come back in a few hours, you know, when I don't want to shove the barrel of my pistol down your throat?"

"I think I'll take my chances," Soul growled, stepping closer to Maka. "We need to talk about this. Now."

"She's staying with us Soul-"

"No Maka!" Soul yelled, stepping closer to the shorter woman. "She can't stay on board and you damn well know it!" Maka turned and stepped closer so that they were chest to chest. Soul would've normally been uncomfortable with the way her breasts were pressed against him, but the fire burning in her moss green eyes made everything else unimportant.

"Give me one good reason why she can't," Maka growled, narrowing her eyes.

"We're on a god damn battleship Maka!" he ground out between sharp teeth. "She could die! Do you want to be responsible for that?" Maka faltered, stepping back and giving Soul some breathing room. She looked confused for a moment before her green eyes hardened again.

"I could teach her how to fight, and besides, no one's forcing her to get involved," she hissed.

"Alright then, how are we gonna feed her Maka? Our commission only pays for five people to eat, and we have seven crew members. We can't afford to have another person on board, unless you want to figure out a way for this ship to fly without fuel," the captain shouted, pointing at the still engine behind her.

"We already discussed this when Liz and Patti came on board two years ago, we can take on some transport jobs like we used to. Get us some extra money," Maka said, pushing her goggles back down and grabbing a blowtorch from her toolbox. "Now if you'll excuse me," she said, flicking on the device. "I've got to finish up some repairs." She lay out flat on her back and rolled under the engine, ignoring Soul's indignant sputtering.

With a rough growl, he grabbed the blowtorch's cord and yanked, ripping it out of the wall. He then stormed over and grabbed Maka's ankle, rolling her back out. When her head came out from under the engine, she glared heavily at him. "Maka," he growled.

"Soul," she growled back. Pushing up, she sat on the floor, resting her weight on her palms. "How can we just abandon her? She's been through so much, the least we can do is give her a place to stay!" The two young adults stared at each other for a few moments. "What would you have done if it were Tsubaki? Or Liz or Patti?" Soul sighed and turned away, running his hands through his hair. Maka was quiet for a few moments before looking back up at Soul. "If it were me?"

Soul stopped mid-stride, both hands coming back to his sides. He sighed again and walked over to where Maka was sitting, crouching down so that they were at the same level. "Maka," he said softly. "I don't want to leave Blair behind, but we can't take her with us. There's too many risks and you know that-"

"That's such bullshit!" Maka screamed, shooting up. "You're just being cheap!"

"I'm trying to keep us in the sky!" Soul yelled back, standing a good seven inches taller than Maka. "I am the captain of this god damn ship, and so help me Maka, you are to listen to my orders! Do you understand me?" Maka roared wordlessly in rage, grabbing a wrench and pulling her arm back, preparing to slam the tool into his skull. She brought her arm down, but Soul was too fast for her. He grabbed her wrist in one large hand and pinned it to the wall over her head. She shrieked angrily and brought her opposite knee up, attempting to knee him where it hurts. But Soul just stopped the attack with his other hand, and when she tried to pull her leg back, grabbed her leg under her knee.

"Let go of me," Maka hissed, arching her back so that she could glare up at the twin pools of fire that were her captain's eyes.

"Make me," Soul growled back, leaning down so that their faces were inches away.

"I will!"

"Hey Soul, I need to talk to you about those call- woah." Both aeronauts looked over to where Kidd stood in the doorway, his eyes wide. "Um… Am I interrupting something?" Soul looked down and seemed to realize how bad their current position looked. Their torso's were pressed tight together, her breasts once again mashed against him, and her thigh rubbing against his hip. Maka's free hand was pressed tightly against his chest in an attempt to push him back and she was staring at him with wide moss green eyes.

Soul dropped her leg and released his hold on her wrist, taking a few wide steps back. Maka simply slumped against the hull, staring at the floor by Soul's feet with wide eyes. "No, you're fine Kidd," Soul said, running his fingers roughly through his hair. "I'll be right there." The doctor nodded once and scuttled away, seemingly fine after his symmetry breakdown from earlier. "Maka," the captain said softly, turning back towards his friend. Maka flinched at the soft word, but looked up at him with a hurt expression.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you," he said, walking back over to the blonde and resting a hand on her shoulder. "Blair can come with us to the Shibusen branch, and then we'll talk to them about it, okay?"

Maka nodded once and straightened up, brushing her bangs back. "Thank you Soul," she said softly. Soul smiled lopsidedly at her and she found herself returning the smile easily. He held his arms out and Maka walked into them, giving him a tight hug. They stood like that for a few moments before Soul pulled back.

"Alright, now get to work okay? Captain's orders," he said teasingly, making Maka laugh.

"Aye aye Captain. Should be done in a few minutes and then we can head out," she said with a smile.

"That's my girl," Soul said. "I need to go talk to Kidd real quick and then I'll meet you up in the bridge." Maka nodded and with a final smile, Soul jogged out of the room. Maka watched him leave and then slumped against the hull, one hand over her heart.

"Damn it Soul," she muttered, her mind subconsciously remembering the feel of his chest pressed against her own and the bone of his hip rubbing into her thigh. "Why do you make me act like this?"

Soul jogged out of the engine room, and nearly jumped out of his boots when he saw Kidd leaning against the wall directly next to the door. After catching his breath, the 20 year old continued on, motioning for Kidd to follow him.

"What was that all about?" Kidd asked, quirking one eyebrow as he fell into step with the white-haired captain.

"Just trying to keep Maka from beating my head in with a wrench," Soul said wearily, running a hand through his colorless locks yet again. It was a nervous tic that he had gotten from his father, and it amused him to no end that Maka had picked up the same trait after being friends with him for a while. A quiet bang echoed through the ship and the entire thing shook for a few seconds. '_BlackStar must've blown himself up again,' _Soul thought with a sigh.

"It didn't look like that," Kidd muttered, rolling up the cuffs of his dress shirt that he wore and ignoring the previous tremors. While most of the crew members wore casual or work clothes, Kidd almost always wore a suit or fancy clothing of some kind. Soul turned and glared hard at his fellow 20 year old.

"Nothing happened Kidd. Besides, I stay out of your sex life, I would appreciate it if you stayed out of my nonexistent one." Kidd snickered at this and punched his arm good naturedly. The two arrived at the bridge and Soul leaned against the arm of Maka's chair. "So, what did you need to ask me?" he asked.

"It's about those calls you wanted me to make," Kidd said, standing up straight with his hands resting on his hips. "I contacted some of the men from the Black and they said they'll call me back with information when we reach Paris." Soul nodded.

"That's good. Where are they supposed to reach you?"

"Small inn about half a mile away from the Shibusen building." Kidd smiled deviously. "Got to keep my cover, am I right?"

"One of these days you're going to have to tell me how a doctor managed to infiltrate the Black," Soul said with a laugh.

"No I don't," Kidd replied with a smile. The two men laughed, but Soul's laughter cut off with a choking sound when two small hands pushed him off the arm of the chair.

"Hey!" he shouted, turning and glaring at the laughing blonde that sat in the chair he had been leaning against.

"Sorry Soul," Maka said with a saucy smirk. "Don't want your fat ass breaking my chair." Soul grumbled something about his butt not being fat, but didn't argue the point.

"We ready for takeoff?" the captain asked. Maka nodded once, already starting her preflight check.

"Yes sir, just spoke with the dockhand, he says we're all settled. Mayor says to come back soon," Maka relayed.

"Alright then, I'll tell everyone we're taking off." Soul walked over to Tsubaki's station and after a few seconds of looking ("It's the big blue button Soul." "Shut up Maka, I know what I'm looking for."), turned on the intercom and pulled down the microphone from the ceiling. "This is your captain speaking," he said clearly, his voice echoing throughout the whole ship. "We will be taking off in a few moments. Will all crew members go to their stations, and Blair, hold on to something." Maka laughed at the last part of his announcement, and listened as the crew scuttled around the ship.

"Good bye Lost Island," she said with a small smile.

**~O**

"Onto our next part of the tour!" Tsubaki said happily said happily, already forgetting about their awkward departure from the engine room. The two women trotted down some stairs and Blair kept up easily. "To your right is the cargo bay. We sometimes make extra transport runs, so it's not empty all of the time. But normally it just holds supplies and some extra ammo," Tsubaki explained. "To the left is the medical bay. If you're ever sick or get hurt, this is where you'll end up."

Blair looked in the room and instantly sweatdropped. "Let me guess, this is Kidd's area," she said sarcastically. The Japanese woman laughed and nodded. The room was perfectly symmetrical from Blair's point of view, and she briefly wondered how he was able to treat patients if his OCD got in the way.

"This next area is the common room. This is where you can come and just relax while we're in the air." The room was well furnished, with a old comfy looking couch and a few recliner chairs. Blankets were spread out all over the place and there was a coffee table with a stack of books in the corner. Blair trotted over and plopped into the couch, purring happily. Tsubaki joined her quietly and for a few minutes the two women talked about everything and nothing.

"So Tsubaki-chan," Blair said, flipping onto her stomach and crossing her arms over the arm of the couch. "What's going on between Soul-kun and Maka-chan. Half of the time they're fighting, and the other half they look like they're about to rip each other's clothes off." Tsubaki laughed loudly at the cat woman's blunt statement and Blair smiled.

"Their relationship is… complicated," Tsubaki said with a shrug. "They knew each other long before the rest of us did and even now, they're very close. They both have tempers though, and although Soul-kun is able to keep his cool most of the time, sometimes he just loses it. But they really do care about each other a lot, so we're all just waiting for them to get over themselves and get together-"

Tsubaki was interrupted by a loud bang, and the ship rocked for a few seconds. Blair shot straight up and looked around for a few moments, noticing smoke coming out of one the two halls that branched off from the common room.

"BlackStar!" Tsubaki shouted worriedly, running towards where the smoke was coming from. Blair joined her and both women coughed violently when Tsubaki threw the door open and smoke billowed out into the hall. "BlackStar! Are you okay!" Tsubaki yelled again, one hand over her mouth while the rest of the smoke cleared out of the room.

"YAHOO!" Tsubaki visibly relaxed at the loud yell, and she headed in the general direction that the shout had come from. Blair also stepped in the room, but stopped short.

"Holy-" she started, her eyes wide. The room was filled to the brim with weapons of all sorts. Swords and staffs lined one wall, rifles and guns along the other. There were crates of gun powder and ammo on the floor next to a large workbench. The room was large, and Blair noticed that there were marks along the ceiling from where another wall had been.

"Pretty cool huh?" BlackStar yelled proudly, one arm thrown over Tsubaki's shoulder as she helped him to stand. His face was covered in soot, and when he pushed his goggles beck, there was a comical ring of soot around the area where they had previously been. "Yup, anything I didn't make I modified, but I made most of the stuff in here!" Blair stared slack-jawed at the blue-haired man. He smirked at her shocked expression and straightened up proudly. "I'm a lot smarter than you apparently make me out to be," he said, smirking widely.

Blair opened her mouth to counter to that statement, but was interrupted when Soul's voice rang out across the intercom system. "This is your captain speaking. We will be taking off in a few moments. Will all crew members go to their stations, and Blair, hold on to something." The three looked at each other (Blair pouted at the last part of his announcement) and Tsubaki motioned for the two to follow her.

"We better get up there," she said. "BlackStar, go double check the bay door please?" The blue-haired man nodded once and with a wide smile ran into the cargo bay. "You can come with me Blair-chan."

"Hai," Blair said, nodding once. The two women made their way up to the bridge and when they reached the room, Blair hung out by the door. Tsubaki took her spot on the left and pulled on a headset. Maka waved at Blair and the cat woman waved back almost shyly.

"Liz, Patti, you ready?" Maka yelled into the intercom, adjusting some dials. Blair looked down the length of the ship and saw the two sisters in the engine room, holding onto a large switch.

"Yep!" they called in unison.

"Alright, preparing for takeoff in three, two, one!" Maka said loudly. On one, the Thompson's pulled on the switch, and the engine coming to life with a roar. Maka gritted her teeth and with surgeon-like precision headed into the air. The ship tilted a little as they left the dock, and Blair watched through the windshield with wide amber eyes. The water under them glittered in the late morning sun and the Grigori continued to climb higher.

"This is the Lost Island Port, you are clear for dismal," a voice said, a small speaker by Tsubaki's right hand cackling to life. The Japanese woman pressed a few buttons and readjusted the mic by her mouth before replying.

"10-4, we're heading off now," she replied easily. She turned and nodded once at Maka, and Maka smiled widely before banking to the right and heading out over the sea. She pushed on a lever and the airship began to move faster.

"Aaaaaand, we're clear!" Maka said happily, leaning back a bit in her chair, both hands still on the wheel. "Tsubaki, can you put in the coordinates for the Europe Shibusen branch please?"

"Already on it," Tsubaki said easily, her fingers flying over the controls. "There we go! We should be there in three days time!" she said with a smile. Soul smirked widely and quickly gave Maka's shoulder a squeeze. Blair smiled, happy that they were no longer fighting.

"Well, I guess we've got three days of off time," Soul said with a smirk, turning to Blair. "So, what do you think of our humble ship?"

"It's fantastic!" Blair said happily. "It's much… homier than the Recluse." Kidd choked on his own spit and turned to Blair with wide eyes.

"You were on the Recluse!" he shouted. Blair shrunk back uneasily, but Maka came to her rescue.

"Yeah, as a slave, so stop your worrying," she said coolly, flipping on the auto-pilot before standing and turning towards Blair with a large smile. "You're flying on a battleship now Blair, and you need to be able to defend yourself," the blonde said happily, her tone totally contradicting what she was saying.

"Um, okay?" Blair said with a quirked eyebrow. "I already know how to defend myself."

"Yeah, well it'd be better for my conscience if we trained you a little more ourselves," Soul said suddenly. "You know how to fire a pistol?" Blair nodded. "You know how to fire a pistol _properly?" _he asked, a stark white brow quirking up.

"Well, I guess so…" Blair trailed off, trying to remember the minimal lessons she had received from Stanasloik.

"Well now you're gonna learn!" Maka said happily, grabbing her hand. "Come on, let's go grab Liz and Patti and then we can start!" Soul watched with an amused smirk as Maka ran down the stairs with Blair in tow, both women laughing. He turned around to find himself on the receiving end of a hard golden glare.

"Why didn't you tell me she was Arachnophobia?" Kidd hissed. Soul's eyebrows bunched together defensively and he straightened out of his slouch.

"She's not Arachnophobia, she was kidnapped and bought by Arachnophobia captains," he shot back. Kidd shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Damn it Soul, you need to tell me these things," Kidd said exasperatedly. Soul growled slightly at this and Kidd's head shot up.

"Last time I checked, I was the captain of this ship, and I don't have to tell you anything that I don't think is important," he growled. "Don't tell me how to run my ship Kidd, I already get enough of that crap from Maka." With that, Soul left the bridge, disappearing down into his bunk. Kidd watched him with wide eyes and Tsubaki, who had just taken off her headset, turned and gave him a small glare.

"What?" he asked, perplexed.

"Just because Blair-chan lived on the Recluse for a while doesn't make her our enemy. She's actually very sweet," she said, quickly coming to her new friend's defense. She also left the bridge to go check on BlackStar, and Kidd was left alone. With a sigh, he sat down in the pilot's chair and flipped off the autopilot. '_Maybe flying for a while will calm me down,' _he thought, and soon he was enveloped in the quiet of the ship, the soft hum of the engine lulling him into a calm state of mind.

**O~**

Blair groaned loudly as she stumbled into the small sitting area in the kitchen, collapsing onto the small, worn couch where Maka was sitting. The blonde and Soul had been deep in conversation, their laughter randomly filling the dining area as they chatted after dinner, but they stopped when the cat woman had intruded on Maka's personal space. Dinner, Blair had discovered, was a much less formal affair than breakfast, with everyone randomly popping in and out as they pleased and grabbing whatever was on hand to eat.

"My head huuuurts," Blair moaned, her face buried in the couch cushions. Three hours of shooting pistols in a metal cargo hold did things to your head and ears, and Blair was suffering. Maka rubbed a reassuring hand on the cat woman's back, and almost by instinct Blair shifted her form, curling up into a small ball of purple fur on Maka's lap.

"Headache?" the blonde asked, a small smile on her face.

"You have no idea- Oh!" Blair's back arched and she purred loudly when Maka scratched between her ears gently. "Oooooh, keep doing that," she said happily, curling up even more. Maka laughed softly and Soul smirked at the two.

"Kitty-chan! Kitty-chan!" The three looked up as Patti ran into the room, Liz walking in casually behind her sister. "Lookie what I found for you!" the youngest crew member said happily, kneeling down in front of Blair and Maka. She smiled widely at the purple cat, both of her hands behind her back. "Close your eyes!" she instructed.

"But Bu-tan doesn't want to-"

"_Oi. Close 'em,"_ Patti growled out, scaring the three.

"Y-yes ma'am," Blair said, shaking slightly. She closed her eyes and with a giggle, she felt Patti put something on her head.

"Ta da!" she sang, holding up a small mirror. Blair looked at her own reflection and perked up instantly. Oh her head was perched a little black top hat, with a wide piece of white ribbon going around the base and two buttons glued onto said ribbon.

"Oh that's so cute!" Maka cooed, her moss green eyes lighting up. Blair hopped up and placed her two front paws on Patti's shoulder, leaning forward and giving her cheek a small lick. The young blonde giggled at the show of affection and picked Blair up, cradling the cat woman to her chest.

"Thank you Patti-chan!" Blair sang, happiness thrumming through her veins. Patti nodded and plopped down next to Maka, resting her head on the older teen's shoulder. Eventually, the entire crew had come together in the small nook, laughing and joking like the night would never end. Blair laughed and contributed her own stories to the conversation, and soon she was lulled into a peaceful slumber.

She remained asleep when Patti left for bed, and she slept through the commute to Maka's room. Maka slipped into bed and placed the sleeping cat by her stomach, being lulled to sleep by the gentle rocking of the ship.

**~O**

"You did WHAT!" Stanasloik cringed away from the Holo that stood in front of him. He had been avoiding this conversation for nearly two weeks, but now that he had an idea of where Blair was heading, he needed to tell his superior of his new route. It was guaranteed to be an uncomfortable discussion.

The fact that his superior was the one whom he bought Blair from made the prospect even less appealing.

"How do you lose a girl!" Netherton yelled angrily, his dull brown eyes flashing. "It's a bit hard to displace a busty, purple, cat woman, don't you think?"

"I'm sorry sir," Stanasloik replied calmly, trying not to show his irritation. "She used magic, and I was handicapped at the moment of her escape." He felt more than saw Netherton stare pointedly at the scars on his face and he felt hate flicker in his chest.

"Blair can't use magic," the blonde man growled out, his eyes narrowing. "Don't lie to me."

"Actually, she can." Stanasloik watched as Netherton turned quickly. "It's some magic charm her grandma gave her," Mizune stated simply, inspecting her nails with a bored expression.

"Well then," Mizune's husband growled, turning back to the captain of the Recluse. "I guess you're not lying. Now, you said you know where she is hiding?" The darker-haired man nodded.

"Yes. A very reliable source told me that she is stowing away on the Airship Grigori." Netherton's eyes widened before his lips curled up in a smirk.

"Oh really now," he almost purred. "I wonder if she'll mind if we drop by for a visit?" Mizune smiled evilly and Stanasloik felt his blank eye twitch.

"Sir, you're coming here?" he asked, irritated. He knew that if Netherton got involved, Blair wouldn't come out of this alive, and where would the point be in that? "I think I'd be more suited to take care of-"

"What, with your dead eye and ratty crew?" Netherton laughed out, Stanasloik prickling at the insult. "Please, you'd be shot out of the sky before you got within a hundred yards of that whore."

This time it was Stanasloik's turn to smirk. "Who said we'd be attacking by air?" Netherton's laughter stopped and he looked at the other man with a small, evil smile.

"… I'm listening."

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

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	5. Oh La La! Paris Is Burning

**O~**

**Blair Arc: Chapter 4**

**Oh La La! ****Paris Is Burning**

**~O**

"GET OUT OF THE AIR YOU FUCKING RETARDS! Ugh, did ANY of you go to flight school! _GET OUT OF MY WAY!"_

"Wow, Maka-chan," Blair laughed nervously, her right eye twitching. "You're a really… angry driver, aren't you?" The irate blonde replied with a screech of some sort, her moss green eyes narrowed. The two women sat in the bridge, Blair perched in cat form on Maka's head. The cat woman was happily donning the top hat Liz and Patti had given her as she tried pointlessly to calm the blonde down.

"It's not my fault that no one in this god damn town knows how to fly!" the pilot growled, banking hard to the left to avoid being hit by a courier ship. She looked ready to murder something, and when her screamed insults turned to threats of using the cannon on their sorry asses, Blair knew it was time to go grab Soul.

She hopped off of Maka's head, trotting down the steps and heading for Soul's room. Peeking her head in and spotting no albino captain, she decided to head for the common area. Blair shifted back into a woman effortlessly, the transformations now as natural to her as breathing, and jogged down the stairs.

Soul looked up when she came in, halting his conversation with Liz temporarily. "What is it Blair?" he asked, concern ringing in his gruff voice. Over the past three days, he had come to like the purple haired woman, and though he had promised himself otherwise, he had come to think of Blair as a part of his crew.

"Maka-chan's threatening to shoot people out of the air with the cannon," Blair said exasperatedly, rubbing her temples with one hand. Liz threw her head back and laughed.

"Again?" she said, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. "Man, that girl needs to loosen up!" The markswoman turned and gave Soul, who had face palmed at the mention of his pilot's behavior, a coy smirk. "Maybe you could help with that Soul?" she said teasingly, nudging the albino man in the ribs. "They say that stress comes from sexual frustration-"

"Liz, don't even go there," Soul growled out, narrowing his eyes. He turned back to Blair with a sigh and smiled wearily at her. "Don't worry, she won't actually do anything-"

The ship rocked with the sound of cannon fire, and loud, maniacal laughter could be echoing through the ship. The three adults looked at each other with wide eyes, and Blair watched as Soul took off like a shot, screaming the whole way.

"GOD DAMN IT MAKA, HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU THAT YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO USE THE CANNON!"

After the initial shock wore off, Blair giggled and plopped down next to the younger blonde. Blair had everyone on the ship beat in the age department, even if only by a few weeks (Liz's birthday was six weeks after hers), but they all still treated her a bit like a child. "Is it always this crazy when Maka's trying to land?" the cat woman asked, twirling her tail around her finger a few times.

"Not really, just in the really big ports like Paris," Liz replied with a shrug. "Some people just can't fly, but they do anyways. Don't worry, Maka will get us into the port safe and sound."

Sure enough, after ten more minutes of creative curses, hard banking, and Soul threatening to disconnect the cannon controls from Maka's station, they landed on the landing pad with a small thud. After the ship had been properly shut down and locked to the deck by a Shibusen deck crew, Maka stormed off the ship, heading towards another ship that had also just landed. The ship was named the Fire Storm, and Blair wondered briefly how one came up with such a name.

"Here we go again," Soul moaned, rolling his eyes as the rest of the crew followed him off the ship.

Blair watched in quiet amusement as the other ship's bay hatch also opened, a tall man walking out. He looked really funny to Blair, with his mostly bald head (save for the two black pillars that jutted up like horns) and clunky goggles. His clothes were bulky, but the cat woman could tell that underneath the multiple layers of clothing, he was built for battle.

"There's this wonderful thing called flight school Ford, you may want to look into it!" Maka yelled across the tarmac, green eyes sparking. Her ashy blonde hair flew behind her in twin waves as the two pilots continued to storm towards each other.

"At least I don't look like a wounded pelican when I fly!" the man yelled back, rolling up the sleeves of his tan, button up shirt, revealing two well-muscled arms. Blair saw Maka reach for her trusty wrench, and she scooted back behind Liz.

"Screw you Ox!"

"Last I checked you were fucking your cap-" BAM! Ox fell over with a wrench logged in his skull, blood spurting almost comically onto the black surface of the landing pad. Maka reached down and pulled her wrench out of his skull mercilessly, sneering at him.

"Get your facts straight," she growled, kicking him once in the side before he stood back up. Soul sighed again as the two pilots continued to go at each other's throats, ignoring the man standing next to him.

"You'd think they would get sick of this eventually," the man said, pushing up the brim of his hat as he watched their verbal sparring turn into a wrestling match.

"Well," Soul sighed, turning towards the man. "You know them. They gotta prove which one is the better pilot." He smirked widely, holding his hand out. "How ya been Kilik?" he asked with a smirk.

"Eh," Kilik said with a shrug, taking Soul's hand in a friendly handshake. "It's been slow these past months, but hey, that's a good thing in our line of work." Soul nodded, shoving his hands in his pockets as the two captains stood side by side. "How are things with you and Maka?" the dark-skinned captain asked with a mischievous smile. Soul groaned, his head falling back.

"Not you too!" he groaned, glaring at his laughing friend. "Nothing's going on between us!"

"That doesn't mean you don't _want_ anything to be," Kilik said, pointing at the albino. "Besides, Kim and Jackie have been taking bets on when you two will hook up, and I have fifty Deathbucks running on you guys fucking each other before the end of the month." Soul's face went a bright red at the crude statement, but just as he opened his mouth to protest a loud squeal echoed across the landing pad.

"MAKAAAAAA!" A bright head of pink hair flew out of the Fire Storm and towards the two pilots.

"My beautiful Kim!" Ox yelled suddenly, dropping Maka to the floor and holding his arms out towards the young woman, sparkles in his eyes. But his face fell when Kim ran right past him, instead helping Maka up and pulling the blonde into a huge hug.

"Maka it's so good to see you!" Kim said happily, her lime green eyes sparking.

"Good to see you too Kim!" Maka cheered, hugging the young woman. The two women babbled happily as the two crews converged in the middle. Blair stayed behind Liz as they walked forward, wanting to be by Maka's side, but too scared of the other crew. After being around only the crew for the past three days, she was a bit scared about being reintroduced to society. Her ears perked instantly though when she heard Maka call her name.

"Blair, come over here!" Maka said happily, waving her over. "I want you to meet Kim!" Stepping forward shyly, Blair looked down at her feet as she shuffled to Maka's side. The cat woman immediately hid behind the younger woman's back, amber eyes peeking out from behind her fearfully. Kim was the same height as Maka, with bright lime green eyes and short, bubble gum pink hair. She smiled widely at the older woman, quirking her head to the side. "Blair, this is Kim Diehl. Kim, this is Blair!" Maka said happily.

"Hi Blair!" Kim said with a smile, reaching her hand out in a friendly manner. "It's nice to meet you!"

"L-likewise," Blair said shyly, shaking the younger woman's hand. Maka smiled at this and grabbed Blair's shoulders, moving her so that she stood in front of the pilot.

"Blair, Kim is a witch, kinda like you!" Blair's amber eyes widened and she snapped her head back around, staring wide-eyed at the pink haired witch. Kim winked at Blair with a smile and in a poof of orange smoke, a raccoon tail swished behind her.

"Yup, I'm the first witch to work on a Shibusen ship!" she said happily. Blair's own tail swished happily and she stepped closer to the young witch, conversing easily with her.

Maka watched them with a soft smile, her eyes half-lidded. She stiffened slightly when she felt two arms drape over her small shoulders, but relaxed when she saw it was just the twins, Fire and Thunder. Fire's bright orange hair was shorter than when she had last seen him, and Thunder had somehow managed to grow taller than Maka.

"Hello Maka," they said in unison, their pale eyes flashing with mirth. Maka smiled back at them, poking Thunder's side.

"Hey you two. You been keeping everyone out of trouble?" she asked with a smirk.

"Out of it? They've been causing it!" a dark haired beauty laughed, walking over from where she had once stood by Kim.

"Shut up Jackie," Fire said with a pout.

"We've been doing better lately," Thunder added helpfully, tucking a piece of her yellow hair behind her ear. "Haven't we Havar?"

A tall, thin man turned towards the teenager, eyes hidden behind a pair of thin goggles. He simply stared at the four before walking away silently. The twins pouted and stalked after the terse man, their movements eerily in synch, leaving the two girls to talk happily.

After about five minutes of catching up, the two crews fell silent when loud laughter invaded their ears. "I see the party has already started without me!"

"Justin!" Maka said happily, green eyes sparkling as she ran towards the taller man.

"Viens ici, petite sœur! (_Come over here, little sister!)_" Justin said happily, holding his arms out towards the other girl. Maka laughed and jumped into his arms, giving him a huge bear hug.

"Justin! J'ai manqué tellement! (_Justin! __I missed you so much!)_" the blonde cried happily, her smile lighting up the whole tarmac.

"Comme moi. J'espère que vous n'avez pas été d'entrer dans trop de problèmes, (_As have I. I hope you haven't been getting into too much trouble,)_" the taller man said with small, secretive smile. Maka rolled her eyes and gave him another hug.

"Um, I hate to interrupt the reunion," BlackStar said, eyeing the wrench still in Maka's hand warily. "But can we move this conversation to, oh, I don't know, _E__nglish_?" Maka turned and glared at the blue-haired monkey, but Justin just laughed.

"He is right," he said, his French accent thick. "I apologize. It is wonderful to see you all again!" Justin went around giving each crew member a warm smile and a quick handshake. The women got two pecks on the cheeks, and though he quirked one light golden eyebrow when he got to Blair, he simply gave her a large smile and a hug. The tall man turned to Soul (and Soul noted with a smug smile that he was finally, _FINALLY, _taller than the Shibusen general), and held his arms out.

"Come on now," Justin said in a joking tone. "A hug for an old friend?"

"You're only five years older than me Justin," Soul replied with a laugh, but still gave the man a quick, friendly hug. "You've been holding up well?" he asked.

"As well as I can," the man said with a smile. "And how about you, Captain?" Justin leaned forward conspiratorially. "Have you been taking good care of my little sister?" Something about the way the older man said "taking good care of" sounded nearly as bad as Kilik's comment, and the albino Captain's face flushed red.

"Yes, I have been taking care of my _friend,_" Soul ground out, emphasizing the word "friend." Justin snapped his fingers with a frown, and much to Soul's surprise, Jackie skipped over.

"Yeah?" the younger, dark haired woman said with a smile. She was the mechanic on the Fire Storm, and very good at what she did. But she apparently had a side career as a bookie, as Justin handed her twenty Deathbucks and said with a blank expression "Move me back a month." Jackie nodded and with a devious smile, skipped back towards her ship.

"Is everyone betting on when we're gonna get together?" Soul growled, face palming for the second time in thirty minutes.

"I heard even Lord Death has placed a bet," Justin said with a small smile. "He put two hundred Deathbucks on, and I quote, 'When I say so.'" Soul rolled his eyes and sauntered over to where Maka was talking to the Fire Storm's witch medic.

"Have you heard about everyone betting on us getting together?" Soul whispered in Maka's ear, glaring heavily at Kim. Maka turned towards him and quirked an eyebrow.

"You're just hearing about this?" she asked, amazed at her captain's obliviousness.

"What! You _KNEW_ about this!" Soul yelled, crimson eyes wide. "And you let it go on?"

"Let it go on? I'm a part of it!"

Soul was ninety-five percent sure his jaw had broken off of his face and hit the floor.

"_WHAT_!" he yelped, his face an interesting shade of red. Maka nodded and turned to him with a devilish smirk.

"I have a hundred Deathbucks running on 'When Hell freezes over,'" she said with a smirk. Soul's eyes widened before he snorted. The snort turned into full blown laughter even though on the inside, Soul's heart broke a little.

"Maka, Soul, Kilik, and Havar, I need you all to come inside for your reports," Justin said suddenly, interrupting the reunion of the two crews. The four aeronauts that had been called out turned towards their superior officer, nodding in unison. The three men began to walk away, but as Maka began to follow them, she heard a loud meow at her feet. She looked down to see Blair sitting in front of her, wide amber eyes staring up at her worriedly. Maka sighed and crouched down so that she was at eye level with the small cat.

"Maka-chan, take me with you!" Blair cried, eyes wide at the thought of being left alone in a big city. She rested her front paws on Maka's chest and Maka's heart nearly broke in half when she saw small tears in the corners of the bright golden eyes.

"Blair," Maka started, scratching the cat woman behind her ears. "I wish I could, but it's protocol for the captain and the first mate to go in and give a report whenever we come into a major Shibusen branch. Nobody else is allowed in, not even Kidd, and his dad is _the _boss." She hugged Blair close to her, stroking her head. "I'll ask Kim and Jackie to take you onto the Fire Storm and watch over you while I'm inside. The second I come out, I'll take you on a tour of Paris-"

"No!" Blair suddenly screeched, eyes wide. The four men walking towards the large building came to a halt as Blair shifted back. "No, I-I can't!" the cat woman stuttered, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "He used to take me out on the streets of Paris, show me around like a-a trophy. Sometimes, he'd let them-" Blair barely held back a sob as Maka collected the purple-haired woman in her thin arms. "He'd let them take me for a test run. Wh-what if I run into one of them in the street! What if one of them recognizes m-me!" The cat woman finally broke down, cradling her face in her hands as she sobbed.

"Okay, no tour," Maka said quickly, rubbing the older woman's back soothingly. "We'll just stay in the ship and have a nice night in. I know this guy who owns a winery on Rue Roquépine," she said with a quirked lip, trying to make the crying woman in her arms feel somewhat better. But Blair just continued to cry, and Maka could feel tears of her own starting to build up behind her lids.

"What's going on!" Soul asked, worry in his voice as he ran back over towards the two women, kneeling next to them and placing a reassuring hand on Blair's shoulder.

Or, at least he tried to before Blair screeched like a banshee and scrambled away, crying.

"NO!" she screamed, amber eyes wide. "DON'T TOUCH ME!"

"Back off, give her some space!" Maka yelled in a panicked voice. Soul, along with the two crews that had come over to help, backed away quickly, forming a half-circle around the two women.

"Qu'est-ce qui se passe ici! (_What is going on here!)_" Justin asked suddenly, running up to stand next to Soul.

"Elle est une attaque de panique, tout le monde juste rester en arrière! (_She's having a panic attack, everyone just stay back!)_" Maka yelled, not looking away from the cat woman that had curled up into a ball. Blair rocked back and forth, sobbing loudly. "Blair, listen to me," she said calmly, inching slowly towards the frightened woman with her hands held in front of her. "It's okay. He can't hurt you anymore, I won't _let_ him hurt you anymore," she whispered, tears flowing over and down onto her cheeks. "You just have to trust me, okay? Just let me help you."

Blair looked up slightly, tears still running down pale cheeks. "No one is going to hurt you," Maka continued, now directly in front of the taller woman as she gently placed her hands on Blair's own. "Not me, not Soul, nobody. I won't let them," she promised. Blair was silent for a few seconds before her arms slowly wrapped around Maka's torso, her head resting on her collarbone.

"Y-you won't let anyone hurt me," Blair murmured into the soft skin of Maka's chest, tears flowing freely.

"Never," Maka said, her voice catching as tears of her own flowed. The two women sat like that for a few minutes before Kim gently walked forward and led the distressed cat woman into the Grigori, Maka's arms still wrapped tight around Blair's shoulders.

Soul watched them with sad crimson eyes, and he stiffened when he felt a large hand on his shoulder. "Soul," Justin said in a low voice, still watching the three women as they disappeared into the ship. "I want an explanation. Now."

Soul sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, I figured you would."

**O~**

"You picked her up where exactly!" Justin shouted, rubbing his temples with one broad hand. Soul growled under his breath, having gone over the story at least three times.

"I told already, we picked her up at Lost Island, and she snuck on board there," he said with a frown. "After looking at all the options, I came to the conclusion that bringing Blair here where we could reevaluate her situation was the best course of action at the time."

"Or Maka wanted to adopt a cat," Ox said with a scoff.

"Okay, why is he here!" Soul growled out, standing suddenly and pointing at the smirking bald man.

"He's not anymore. Leave," Kilik growled, glaring at his pilot heavily. Ox frowned, but obeyed the dark-skinned man's order. Soul watched him leave with a blank expression, but once the door has shut behind him, the albino turned towards his fellow captain with a quirked eyebrow.

"Okay, how do you do that? I can't even get my pilot to take out the trash-"

"Concentrer!(_Focus!)_" Justin shouted, slamming his hand down on the desk in front of him. "I still want to know why you let a former Arachnophobia agent on your ship!"

"Hey now," Soul growled, walking up to the desk. "She was a slave."

"She was still a part of that crew-"

"SHE WAS KIDNAPPED!" Soul suddenly roared, slamming both hands onto the desk. "She was kidnapped, right after watching the only person who truly loved her and raised her get her throat slit! Then she was put on the fucking Black, bought, and raped every night for two years by an Arachnophobia captain. She ran away and she came onto _my _ship, asking for _my _help!" he bellowed, making Justin's blue eyes widen.

"By letting her on board, you broke nearly a hundred rules," Justin said calmly, staring at Soul with those bottomless eyes.

"Yeah, well I've never been too good with rules," Soul hissed, leaning down.

"Soul," Kilik warned, placing a hand on the angry captain's shoulder.

"But I get the job done," he continued. "I make sure that the bad guys go down, and that innocents are protected." Soul pushed off the desk, standing tall. "Blair is innocent. She's just a traumatized woman that not only has my crew taken under their wing, but Maka as well. You've known Maka longer than I have, you know how she is. She won't give Blair up so easily."

"Wait, how long have you and Maka known each other Justin?" Kilik interrupted, quirking a dark eyebrow.

"We grew up together when we were children living in New Death Haven," Justin said, resting his head in his hands to ward off the coming headache. "I moved to Paris when I was twelve, and we lost contact until Maka showed up in my office about three years ago." Justin's eyes moved back to Soul. "Now, are you sure that you took this Blair woman in just because you felt bad for her?"

"What are you implying?" Soul hissed, crimson eyes narrowing.

"Ms. Blair is a very beautiful woman," Justin said calmly, fiddling with a pen on his desk. "And I know how it gets in the air. Many days, even months without feeling the touch of a woman-"

"Are you saying I brought Blair on board just so I can take care of Morning Wood!" Soul roared, eyes wide. "Are you out of your god damned-"

"I tolerate many things in this office, but I do not accept one taking the Lord's name in vain," Justin growled.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Soul said sarcastically. "Are you out of your _gosh darn_ MIND!"

"He has a point Soul," Kilik said suddenly. "If news gets out about this, that's going to be the first thing people will assume. How can we know that that's not your true intention?" Kilik gasped as he suddenly found himself pinned against a wall, and enraged albino captain holding up on the wall with his forearm.

"Because," Soul hissed, leaning close. "I am in love with Maka Albarn, and it will be a cold day in Hell when I do to her what her father did to her mother." Soul pulled back, letting Kilik land loudly on his feet. "Now if you both don't mind, I'm off to go take care of my crew." And with that, Soul was gone, leaving Kilik and Justin alone in the blonde's office.

"… Am I the only one that feels really bad about what just happened?" Kilik asked after a few moments of silence. Justin simply nodded.

"Yes, well it was necessary," Justin reasoned, pulling open a drawer and beginning to fill out a form quickly and efficiently.

"What's that?" the darker-skinned captain asked, leaning over the desk.

"I cannot approve a former sex slave to travel aboard a Shibusen ship," Justin said calmly, before looking up at Kilik with a small, sneaky smile. "But I can approve of a cat."

**~O**

Maka emerged from her room with a small sigh, closing the hatch to her room with a quiet hiss. She couldn't stop thinking about what had happened earlier on the tarmac with Blair. '_I guess it was worse than we thought,' _she admitted with another sigh. As she turned down the hall towards the engine room, she was surprised when a very angry Soul stormed up the stairs.

"Hey," Maka said, eyes wide. "What's wrong?" Soul just growled, running his large tan hands through his stark white hair. "Oh, not talking eh?" Maka said quietly, stepping into Soul's personal bubble. "Come on Soul," the blonde said soothingly, taking her captain's hands from his hair and holding them in her own, much smaller, hands. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Ugh," Soul groaned, giving in to Maka's pleas (how could he not when she was shooting her infamous Puppy Eyes at him). "Justin's being a dick about me taking Blair on board," he said with a sigh, twining his fingers and Maka's.

"What!" Maka shouted, her eyes wide. "That's ridiculous! Besides, I'm the one that brought her on board, I should be the one to get in trob-"

"But I'm the captain," Soul said sternly, ducking down a bit so that he could look under the pilot's bangs. "So technically, Blair's my responsibility." Maka nodded once, not really believing him.

She released his hands and continued on her way to the engine when a strong arm wrapped around her waist. "Where do you think you're going?" Soul asked, his grip on Maka's waist tightening.

"To work on the eng-"

"Oh no," Soul said suddenly, interrupting Maka mid-explanation. "You've been working non-stop on the engine for the past four days. We're in Paris Maka! And I'll be damned if you spend our entire time here in a hot, steamy room with only your wrenches to keep you company." He began to drag her protesting form backwards, back towards her room. "You are going to go put on something nice, and I am taking you to that winery you mentioned earlier," he decided, nodding his head once at his plan.

"W-what about Blair?" Maka grunted as she struggled. "I need to be here in case-"

"All of the girls, including Blair, are sleeping on the Fire Storm tonight, so you have nothing to worry about," Soul said with a small smirk. "You can go ahead and thank me now." They reached Maka's room and without any warning, Soul scooped Maka up bridle style and dropped her down into her room, the poor nineteen year old screaming as she fell.

Maka barely managed to land on her feet and her head immediately shot up, screamed protests ready on her lips. But the excitement burning in Soul's crimson eyes and the genuine smile, not smirk, not sneer,_ smile_, he wore made any argument she had prepared die in her throat. "If you're not ready in ten minutes, I'm coming down!" Soul said with a laugh, swinging the hatch closed with a loud bang. Maka sighed and shook her head, laughing quietly to herself. As she began to sift through her meager closet, she briefly began to worry over Blair. But the memory of Soul's sharp-toothed smile chased any negative thought from her mind and made her entire body glow.

Soul sat at the table for eight minutes, his fingers drumming impatiently on the table. He debated silently whether to go grab the pilot now or wait another two minutes , when suddenly he heard a small cough by the door. His head snapped around and it took every ounce of self control to not let his jaw hit the floor. Maka stood in the doorway, a plain white dress swishing above her knees. The dress hung close to the curves of her torso and a light leather belt hung off of her wide hips. Soul noted with a small snort that she was still wearing her clunky boots, and he stood easily.

"See, now that wasn't too hard was it?" the albino asked with a smirk, making Maka snort.

"Yeah yeah, just be grateful Liz is on the Fire Storm, otherwise you'd have to wait for an extra week or so." The two laughed easily and when Soul reached her side, he held his arm out in a teasing manner.

"May I, m'lady?" Soul said, thickening his English accent (AN – Pretty much everyone on the ship has an accent of some sort. Soul, Maka, Blair, and Kidd have English accents, Tsubaki has a Japanese accent, BlackStar has a wee bit of an Irish accent, and the Thompsons have thick New York accents). Maka laughed and easily looped her arm in his.

"You may good sir," she said solemnly, though the snort of laughter after ruined the somber tone. The two left the ship, and after a few minutes of navigating the complicated Shibusen grounds, wandered the streets of Paris arm in arm. It took another twenty minutes to reach the winery, but seeing as Maka couldn't breathe from laughing so much, Soul counted the walk as a success.

After conversing in fluent French with the man who owned the winery, Maka managed to walk away with a picnic basket full of fresh bread, various cheeses, and two bottles of wine. Soul cheered at her catch and Maka glowed with pride, leading them towards the center of town. The two nibbled on the snacks as they walked, Soul's eyes lighting up when they reached the Eiffel Tower.

"You wanna go to the top?" Maka asked with a small smile. Soul nodded instantly.

"Can you do that?" Maka smirked and Soul felt a distinctive heat in his lower stomach churn.

"Watch me," she said in a rough voice, smirk still in place. She ran up to the attendant of the cog powered elevator, green eyes shining.

"Pardonnez-moi, mais nous devions rencontrer mon père au sommet de la Tour, (_Pardon me, but we were supposed to meet up with my father at the top of the Tower,)_" Maka lied easily, smiling.

"Je suis madame désolé, mais je ne peux pas vous admettre à l'étage, (_I'm sorry ma'am, but I cannot admit you upstairs,_)" the older man said sadly. "Puis-je demander ce que l'occasion est? (_May I ask what the occasion is?)" _he asked. Soul squeaked in a very uncool way when Maka grabbed his arm and pulled him close to her, her arms wrapping around his waist after guiding his own hand to her shoulder. Soul, being the non-French speaking, half-Italian dude that he was, had absolutely NO CLUE what was going on, but he decided after a few seconds that he liked it.

"Nous allons nous marier! (_We're getting married!)_" Maka said happily, her smile lighting up the room. "Et nous voulions dire à mon père avant son départ pour l'Amérique, (_And we wanted to tell my father before he left for America,)_" she explained, closing her eyes and smiling as she let her head fall against Soul's chest. Soul blushed a slight red, but moved his head down and gently kissed the top of her head. The elevator operator smiled at the young couple and nodded.

"Eh bien, je suppose que je peux pour l'heureux couple, (_Well, I guess I can for the happy couple,)_" the man said with a smile, moving a side and gesturing for them to go inside the elevator. Soul looked down at Maka with a bewildered smile, but the blonde simply thanked the operator and dragged Soul inside the elevator. As they rode up towards the top of the Eiffel Tower, the albino man though the weirdness had come to a stop, but Maka, as she typically did, proved him wrong as she rose up onto her tippy toes and kissed him right on the cheek.

"Ici, vous allez, profitez de votre temps à la Tour Eiffel! Et j'espère que les choses vont bien avec ton père! (_Here you go, enjoy your time at the Eiffel Tower! And I hope things go well with your father!)_" the man said happily, waving goodbye as the couple walked from the elevator. Maka turned back with a smile and waved at him as he disappeared behind the closing doors, and the second he was gone, she let go of Soul with a laugh.

"Remind me to use that plot again," she said with a smirk, winking at a very confused Soul before trotting off towards the rail.

"Wait, what did you say! MAKA! WHAT JUST HAPPENED!" He ran after her, and upon reaching her opened his mouth to pull the "I'm your captain" card, but the tranquil expression on his pilot's face made him reconsider.

"Isn't it beautiful?" she sighed, leaning against the rail with a smile. Soul nodded as he moved to stand behind her, his arms wrapping around her waist easily. For the millionth time, Soul was very glad that he had a significant height advantage over Maka as he rested his chin on her head.

"Yeah, she is," he said softly, looking down his nose at her. Maka didn't hear him and continued to watch the Paris skyline with a smile.

"Sooo," Soul drawled after about thirty minutes, twirling one of her messy pigtails around his finger. "Anywhere else you want to go?" Maka smiled, tilting her head up so that she could look at her friend as she spoke.

"Well, there is this chocolate shop where my mother always used to take me-"

"SOUL!" Both aeronaut's heads snapped around with a start, Soul releasing his grip on Maka's waist immediately. Kidd ran up to them, golden eyes wide as he reached their side. "We have a problem!' he near-shouted, trying to catch his breath.

"What kind of problem?" Soul asked, shifting into captain mode easily. Maka stood a foot or two away from them, green eyes darting around the viewing area as she unlatched her pistol and clicked off the safety.

"You know how you asked me to talk to my contacts on the Black and see if they knew anything about Blair?" Kidd said, sounding hesitant.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well," the ebony-haired boy said, his eye narrowing. "They responded. And it's nothing good."

Soul and Maka shot each other a single look and with a quick nod from Maka, Soul turned back to Kidd. "Let's take this conversation back to Shibusen, okay? I don't want to freak any civilians out." Kidd nodded once, and the three ran for the stairs.

"You know," Maka said suddenly as they ran down the steps. "You make us sound so scary! I mean, not everything we do involves killing people-"

"Well I don't want to take my chances," Soul shot back. "Besides, last time Kidd was this freaked out, he had just pulled a bullet out of Patti, so let's assume the worst, shall we?" Maka fell silent, and it only took another minute or two for the three adults to reach the first floor. As Soul shoot past the elevator operator, he came to a halt, trotting back to the older man.

"Hey, hi," he said, waving his hand slightly. "Um, you know that pretty blonde I came in with? Yeah, uh, what did she tell you?" Soul asked, quirking his head to the side.

"Elle a dit que vous étiez de se marier. Félicitations!" the man said happily, clapping one hand on Soul's broad shoulder.

"Erm, English would help," Soul admitted sheepishly.

"Oh! Um, you two getting married? Much happiness!" The man said slowly, his English rough and broken. His head quirked to the side at the albino's suddenly very red face, and the peculiar man just thanked him before running off after the blonde that he had come in with earlier.

"MARRIED!" Soul screeched. "You told him we were getting _MARRIED_!" Maka turned and laughed.

"It worked didn't it?" she replied easily, smiling like an idiot.

"Well… Yeah, but… Married?" Soul said exasperatedly. Maka just smiled as the three made their way towards Shibusen.

Maka had no disillusions about her past life. She knew that if she and Soul had stayed in that world of politics and parties, they would have been engaged by now, either forced by their parents or to _avoid_ being forced by their parents. After a few sleepless nights of wondering over this fact, she decided that being married to Soul would be just like living on an airship with him.

Only with more sex. Not that that was exactly a bad thing.

"So what exactly did your contacts tell you?" Maka asked, trying to get the mental images the last thought had conjured in her head.

"They mentioned that Stanasloik was asking around about Blair," Kidd said, and much to Maka's shock he pulled out his pistol from beneath his overcoat. "And where the Grigori was going to dock next." Maka and Soul both skidded to a stop, their eyes wide. Kidd stopped as well, his amber eyes darting around.

"Wait, they're coming after us!" Maka almost yelled, moss green eyes wide. Soul immediately pulled his own pistol, standing behind the younger girl defensively.

"How long until they get here?" he asked calmly, crimson eyes narrowed.

"We don' t know for sure, but it's going to be soon," Kidd admitted. "We need to be ready to go in a moment's notice though." The captain and pilot both nodded, and after Maka had also pulled out her own pistol, the three continued to Shibusen in silence.

**O~**

"What's going on?" Blair asked innocently, amber eyes shining. She had been playing Rummy with the other girls in the two crews when Maka, Soul, and Kidd had run in, pistols drawn. Maka wordlessly gestured for Blair to join her, and Blair shifted quickly, landing in the aeronaut's arms. She scrambled up to the top of Maka's head, clutching two pieces of hair between her paws.

"Tsubaki," Soul started, eyes hard as he spoke in a commanding tone. "Go find BlackStar and make sure he restocked our ammo supplies. Kidd, go ransack the Shibusen Infirmary for anything we need."

"I'll help!" Kim added, standing quickly. The two doctors ran off and Soul turned back to the crew members still in the room.

"Liz, Patti, get everything on the ship locked down. I want to be ready to take off at a moment's notice." The two sisters nodded and headed off towards the ship. With one last nod towards her captain, Maka ran off after them, the hammer on her pistol pulled back and ready to fire.

"Maka-chan!" Blair cried, holding onto the top of Maka's head. "What's going on!"

"Kidd got word that we're going to be getting some visitors soon, and we just want to be prepared," Maka said coolly, not relaxing until they were onboard the ship. The second they were upstairs, Maka slipped her pistol back in its holster and plucked Blair off the top of her head, holding her instead in her arms.

"What kind of visitors?" Blair asked as Maka ran up towards the bridge. Maka faltered slightly, but kept going, not speaking again until they had reached the bridge. The younger girl trotted down to the lowered platform and kneeled by a little hole in the wall.

"I'm not going to lie to you Blair," Maka said sadly, hugging the cat woman closer to her chest. "It's the Recluse, they found out that you had stowed away on the Grigori." Blair's eyes widened and she almost immediately began to cry. "They're coming after us."

"O-oh god," Blair moaned, shifting back into a woman. "Th-this is a-all my fau-"

"No!" Maka shouted, grabbing both of Blair's shoulders. "Listen to me Blair, this is not your fault! It's just a sequence of events completely out of your control." Blair hiccupped quietly as Maka began to rub her back soothingly. "Now if anything should happen, or they board us, I want you to shift into a cat and hide in here. No arguments," she added, noticing Blair's opening mouth. "Just do it."

"B-but what about y-"

"We'll be fine," Maka said soothingly. "We've done this plenty of times before, so you just worry about staying hidden." Blair nodded, and in a puff of purple smoke, shimmied her little cat body into the hiding spot. She looked up at Maka and quirked her head to the side. "Perfect," Maka said with a sad smile, reaching forward and scratching the cat woman behind her ears.

Had they had known that at that moment they were being watched, they would have never stayed in that room for longer than three seconds.

"Sir, we have a confirmed sighting," the masked man said to his superior. Stanasloik gestured for the binoculars and after pulling them to his own eyes (eye), he smiled evilly.

"Perfect," he whispered. _"I'm coming for you my dear."_

**~O**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

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	6. I'm NOT Your Girl

**O~**

**Blair Arc: Chapter 5**

**I'm **_**Not**_** Your Girl**

_(THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M FOR GORE)_

**~O**

Soul watched with burning red eyes as Maka paced the cargo hold, his pilot now back in her normal outfit. "Maka," Soul started, sighing quietly as the blonde ignored him, continuing to pace the ship. "Maaaaka~" he said again, his rough voice taking on a sing-song tone. Said woman continued to pace, biting her lower lip viciously. "_Maka_!" he snapped finally, using his captain voice. Maka came to a halt, staring wide-eyed at the taller man as he walked closer, grabbing the tops of her arms. "You need to calm down," he said, bending down slightly so he was at eye level with his pilot. "You can't think straight if you're freaking out like this."

"But, what about Blai-" Maka started, her head turning to look towards the kitchen, where Blair was currently being guarded by an over-excited BlackStar and a reserved Tsubaki.

"She's going to be fine," Soul reassured, cupping Maka's cheek and forcing her head back around so that she was looking at him. "BlackStar wouldn't let _me _near her, that's how serious he is, and Tsubaki is sitting all quiet like in the corner surrounded by at least 10 katanas." Soul grinned when Maka giggled quietly. "Not to mention Liz is bringing out Vera, so we should be fine."

"I still can't believe she named her sniper rifle," Maka said with a scoff, rolling her eyes and smirking. Soul shrugged, releasing his hold on her arms and draping a muscled arm over her thin shoulders.

"Eh, what are you gonna do?" he said with a laugh. "As long as she can fire it, she can name it Pomplamoose for all I care." Maka flat out laughed at this, and Soul smiled at the small victory.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the bay door, and both aeronauts turned towards the door in a flash. Maka pulled her pistol out and cocked it, shooting at the door. They heard a loud squeak behind the door, and Soul smirked slightly.

"STATE YOUR NAME AND BUSINESS!" she yelled, cocking her gun again. Soul stared wide-eyed at her and whistled lowly.

"Wow, you're really serious about this whole thing, aren't you?"

"C'est moi, Justin! Ouvrez, vite!(_It's me, Justin! __Open up, quickly!)_" Maka lowered her gun warily, and after running over and checking through the window, sighed in relief and pressed the button that would let the door down. The door moved slowly, and halfway down, Justin pulled up the robes of his cleric's outfit and hopped up, sprinting into the ship. "Certains des hommes en patrouille dans l'air autour de la ville remarqué un bateau noir reposant pas deux miles d'ici, (_Some of the men on patrol in the air around the city noticed a black ship resting not two miles from here,)" _he relayed quickly, bottomless blue eyes wide with panic. Maka swore, slamming her hand back down on the button to close the bay door.

"What?" Soul asked, quietly damning his parents for not making him learn French. "What did he say!"

"They're here," Maka hissed, her viridian eyes flashing and sparking like a forest fire. "Do we know when they're coming?" she asked Justin, her tone harsh and rough.

"Soon," was his only response, and Soul cussed loudly. "I would get together your crew and get them ready for battle." Soul nodded once and ran for the galley, leaving Maka and Justin alone in the cargo hold. "On dirait que beaucoup de difficulté pour un chat, (_Seems like a lot of trouble for a cat)," _Justin said, watching Maka carefully. He already knew Soul's thoughts on the matter (along with others), but now he wanted to know hers.

"Elle n'est pas un chat, (_She's not a cat,)" _ Maka hissed, her eyes narrowing. "Elle est un être humain, et c'est mon travail en tant que pilote Shibusen pour la protéger. En outre, elle est mon ami, je protéger mes amis (_She's a human being, and it's my job as a Shibusen pilot to protect her. Also, she's my friend, I protect my friends.)" _The blonde woman pulled on the collar of her shirt, revealing a medium sized mark on her shoulder. "Do you know what this is?" she growled out in English, her flashing green eyes making Justin feel like he had just ripped the tag off a mattress.

"A bullet hole," he said quietly.

"Exactly. I was shot trying to protect my crew. Blair, whether you or any of the other higher ups like it or not, is a part of my crew," she said, her eyes sliding closed at the memory.

"_**Patti! Move!" Maka felt like time was slowing down as she watched the fifteen year old turn towards the man, her blue eyes widening as she stared down the barrel of his pistol. Without thinking, Maka dropped her own pistol and ran towards her, ignoring Soul's panicked screams.**_

"_**MAKA STOP!"**_

"_**GAH!" Maka cried out in pain as the bullet intended for Patti's forehead lodged its self in her right shoulder, the pain making her crumple to her knees. She was vaguely aware of the rest of her crew, mainly Soul, screaming in rage and right before she fell unconscious, the man that had shot her had a piece of rebar sticking out of his heart, a very angry captain on the other end.**_

"You really care about her, don't you?" Justin asked, staring in horror at the scar on her shoulder.

"She's like a sister to me," Maka said with a shrug, readjusting her shirt. "I've always wanted an older sister," she joked, smiling slightly.

"Trust me, they aren't all they're cracked up to be." Maka looked up and smiled at Patti, who was leaning over the railing to smile widely at the two blondes.

"I resent that comment," was Liz's cool reply, glaring playfully at her younger sister as she trotted up the stairs to the catwalks (oh the irony), her large sniper rifle in one hand, and a box full of ammo in the other.

The other crew members, minus Blair, emerged, each with their own weapons. Kidd pulled his twin pistols from his shoulder holsters, twirling them expertly in his hands before grasping them, his pinkies resting on the trigger. BlackStar looked like he was about to walk alone onto a battlefield, he was carrying _that_ many weapons, many of which he had designed himself.

"No grenades BlackStar," Maka said with a roll of her eyes. "We're holding back a crew of men, not occupying a small country."

"Well," BlackStar said with a pouty expression. "It's good to be prepared for the worst."

"_No grenades_ _BlackStar_," Soul said as he walked past, loading his own pistols quickly. BlackStar's whining was ignored by Maka as she turned to the taller Japanese woman that had come in with the blue haired monkey.

"Is Blair in the hiding place I told her to go to?" she asked, worry evident in her tone. Tsubaki looked up from her chain scythe, cobalt eyes calm and cool.

"Yes ma'am," she said in a low voice. Tsubaki always got like this before a big battle, all calm and quiet. She was from a family of extremely skilled martial artists, and though her specialty was the chain scythe, she was deadly with any Japanese form of weaponry.

Thus explaining the 8 katanas of all different lengths currently strapped to her back.

"Good," Maka sighed, running a gloved hand through her ashy blonde bangs. She walked over to Soul with one last nod at Tsubaki, taking her place by his side. She pulled out her own pistol and after double checking it was fully loaded, pulled back the hammer with a satisfying click. She turned to the older blonde officer and gave him a quick nod. "You can go now Justin, we've got this under control."

"Actually," Justin drawled, snatching a gun off of BlackStar's body and cocking it easily. "I think I'll stay."

"Doesn't the bible say some pretty specific things about killing?" Kidd asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"Yes, quite specific," the older man said with a calm, sneaky smile. "It is, however, somewhat _vague _on the subject of _kneecaps." _He turned to Maka with a smile, and she returned it easily. Soul gave the older man a nod, and they all took their places. Liz and Patti laid down on the catwalk on their stomachs, each holding a large rifle. BlackStar and Tsubaki each stood on opposite sides of the cargo hold, their respective weapons held at the ready. Justin, Maka, Kidd, and Soul stood in the center, their guns aimed at the bay door.

They all tensed at the sound of men running across the tarmac, and then someone banging on the door.

"… Who is it?" BlackStar yelled, getting a glare from his other crewmembers.

"Telegram," was the intelligent response, and suddenly, their door was gone. It fell down with a thud, hitting the ground. A man with black hair and equally dark eyes walked up, four scars running across right eye. He stopped and quirked his head to the side, his smile like the devil's.

"Honey," he called teasingly. "I'm home!"

Both crews ran at each other, the crew of the Grigori screaming feral battle cries. Gun shots rang throughout the cargo hold, both sides firing at the other. Tsubaki looked like a koi fish moving through the water, leaving a trail of broken Arachnophobia crewmen behind her and BlackStar cackled like an idiot, his gunfire taking down man after man. Kidd was doing fairly well on his own, the distinct ringing of his pistol fire filling the cargo hold.

A sudden on-surge of men came at him and the doctor backed up quickly, cussing loudly when his back hit the wall. The closest man sneered at the ebony haired man, and Kidd's amber eyes widened in fear and anger. He brought his pistols up and pulled the hammer back, but when he pulled the trigger, he was greeted by a dull "click."

"Aw fuck," he hissed, eyes widening even more. The man sneer grew and he pulled a dagger out of his belt. Just as he raised the dagger high above his head, a small hole, no wider than Maka's pinky, appeared in the mask right between his eyes, blood spurting from the wound and splashing across Kidd's face. The other men that had cornered Kidd pulled back with a yell as the man collapsed, his dagger clattering to the floor.

Though he couldn't look up to thank her (looking up would give away her position), Kidd smiled slightly and above his head, Patti smiled as she cocked her rifle. He quickly pulled two more pistols out of the holsters at his hip, and jumped back into the fray, gunfire ringing through the cargo hold.

Justin ran through the cargo hold, shooting men strategically. As he went along, he began to pray, his voice rising in volume as he went.

"We, the people of the city of death, beseech you, our God, as Christ is just. Oh God, let me be an instrument of your peace; I am a pillar of justice, a blade of faith. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit, feel my wrath," he growled out, his bottomless blue eyes shining effervescently.

About ten minutes into the fight, Maka looked around, noticing that the man that had led in the Arachnophobia crew was nowhere in sight. "Soul," she muttered, back to back with said man as they took down multitudes of the enemy. This was how they always fought, side by side, back to back, never leaving the other unless it was absolutely necessary. "Where's Stanasloik?" Maka asked, her voice pitching with panic.

"Probably dead by now- HEY!" he yelled, spinning around as he felt the warmth the her body gave off leave him. "What are you doing!" the albino man shouted, spinning around and using his pistol as a club to beat one man back before shooting him twice in the heart. He was covered in blood by now, they all were, and the other crew tried to stay as far away from the demonic-looking Captain covered in blood as possible.

"I'll be right back!" Maka shouted over her shoulder, sprinting towards the door that led to the infirmary and pulling it open with a grunt. Liz and Patti had closed off all the doors before the battle started as to keep the opposing crew contained, but Maka found they just got in her way as she ran up the stairs towards the bridge.

The blonde pilot was halfway to the bridge, sprinting past her dorm, when a hand shot out and grabbed her face, another wrapping around her waist like a vice. She kicked and tried to scream, twirling her pistol in her hand once before swinging it down like a club.

"Not so fast," a smooth voice whispered in her ear, his hand coming off her face and catching the butt of the pistol easily. "There's no need for that," the mystery man said with a chuckle, pulling the protesting woman closer to him. Maka froze at the feeling of his body pressed against her back, and she twisted and squirmed even more, spitting out curses that would have made any sailor wince. Out of the corridor, another man stepped out, and Maka instantly recognized him as Stanasloik. He smirked at her, and she spit at him.

"Well, that's a little rude," he said, looking at the spit on his shoe with a distasteful glare. "And to a close personal friend of Blair's too!"

"That's bullshit!" Maka screeched, green eyes flashing. She lunged forward, growling in rage, but the man behind her simply grabbed her arms, holding them behind her back. "Let me go you fucking bastard!" she screamed, thrashing wildly. Maka broke free for just a moment, and twirled on her heel, bringing her leg up and around in an expertly executed roundhouse kick (Chuck Norris would've been proud). But the man that had held her simply grabbed her by the ankle, using her momentum to drag her closer.

His mahogany eyes flashed dangerously and Maka's eyes widened. "Hey Stanasloik, this girlie ain't too bad looking. Maybe we can ditch the magic girl and take this one home instead," he said, one hand reaching up to grab Maka's chin. He twisted and turned her face every which way, bringing his face uncomfortably close to hers.

"Sir, you can keep the girl, I just want Blair back," Stanasloik said, narrowing his eyes. The other man shrugged, still inspecting Maka like a piece of Meat.

"Netherton, sir!" a radio at his hip cackled, Maka's eyes widening exponentially. '_Wait, it can't be_,' she thought with wide eyes. '_Netherton! The guy who kidnapped Blair!' _"We need to retreat! Most of our men are dead and the other half have been captured!"

"Keep fighting!" Netherton hissed. "We're not done here." He turned back to Maka and quirked his head at her furious gaze. "Oh, what's wrong?" he asked, his face blank.

"Netherton," Maka hissed, her eyes narrowing. "You're the reason why Blair is like this!" she screeched, jerking away from him and pulling a dagger from her boot. She shot forward, screaming wordlessly, as she brought the blade up and across diagonally. Netherton moved back and just barely dodged the attack, mahogany eyes narrowing.

"Damn bitch," he hissed, running forward after Maka swung the dagger around. He knocked the dagger from her hand, grabbing one of her ponytails in the other hand and pulling. Maka cried out in pain, and Netherton frowned at his subordinate, nodding towards the bridge. Dragging the protesting woman towards the bridge, Stanasloik jerked the door open, making it open with a loud bang. They stepped in, Maka still protesting like mad.

"Blair!" he yelled, his one eye darting around the room. "I know you're in here! Now, I don't want to hurt your little friend here, but I will if you don't come out here!"

"BLAIR DON'T COME OUT!" Maka screamed, green eyes wide. "STAY HIDDE-ACK!" Maka's legs buckled under her, eyes flying open at the intense pain in her stomach. Netherton let out a dark laugh as he jerked the poor woman up by her pigtail, her pink lips opening and closing silently in agony.

In her hiding place, Blair had to cover her mouth with her paws at the sound of a gunshot ringing through the bridge, Maka's pained cries following. Her tear filled eyes looked up, watching as Stanasloik cocked his gun again.

"Now, do you see how serious I am?" he asked the air, his voice loud.

**O~**

Soul's head shot up, his finger pulling the trigger as a reflex. He ignored the sound of a man falling the floor and the blood that splattered across his back as his head whipped around, searching for the source of the noise.

"Did anyone else hear that?" he shouted, crimson eyes narrowed.

"Hear what?" BlackStar yelled back, dropping the gun he held, seeing as it was empty, and grabbing another off his back. "You need to focus Soul! I'm almost out of ammo, and without a big star like me you guys won't stand a chance!"

Soul understood the true meaning of BlackStar's comment and he winced. Out of all of them, BlackStar had the most ammo, and if he was almost out, that meant that they were close to being finished. Tsubaki was the only one that didn't have to worry about ammo, but even she was running low on weaponry. Most of her katanas had been knocked from her hands, and her chain scythe was currently lodged in someone's brain, so she couldn't use that either. Kidd had resigned to using brute force, and Soul watched as he broke one crewmember's neck with a sick snap.

"I heard it too!" Patti yelled, looking through her scope into the men below, pulling the trigger and taking out yet another man. "It sounded like someone screaming."

"But all of the doors are locked off- oh SHIT," Soul's crimson eyes widened, the albino man turning quickly on his heel. "Liz! Has Maka come back yet!"

"No, I don't see her," Liz responded, and Soul cussed loudly.

"You guys keep going, I'm going to help Maka!" he shouted over his shoulder, running up the stairs towards the galley.

"Wait! Soul!" Justin yelled, but Soul was already gone, running after his pilot. "Damn it!" he hissed, shooting another man in the leg.

"Maka!" Soul yelled, running into the galley. His white hair whipped around his face as he looked around, eyes wide. "MAKA!"

His entire body froze up when he heard another scream, louder this time and definitely Maka's, echoed through the ship, sending shivers through the captain's body. His head turned towards the source of the noise, and he ran towards the bridge.

"MAKA!" he screamed again, banging against the door to the bridge with his closed fists. "MAKA ANSWER ME!" He stopped his banging when he heard a male voice.

"Now do you see how serious I am?" a voice yelled. Soul halted, taking a moment to wipe the window clean and look through. He felt the blood leave his face at the sight that greeted him, and he continued to bang on the door, now with renewed vigor. Maka laid on the floor in a pool of her own blood, her face covered sweat as she gritted her teeth against the pain. A man with long blonde hair that was tied back stood over her, and Soul screamed in rage at the sight.

The taller man looked up, and looked absolutely unsurprised when he saw a furious albino captain glaring at him through the window of the door. He tilted his head to the side and smiled evilly, lifting one foot and then slamming it onto Maka's stomach. Soul watched in horror as more blood bubbled around his shoe, and Maka screamed, her eyes slamming shut against the pain.

"I don't want to hurt this girl anymore, but if you don't come out Blair, I'm going to have to," the other man yelled, and Soul guessed by the four scars across his eye that he was Stanasloik.

"BLAIR STAY OUT OF THIS!" Maka yelled, and Soul wanted to scream at her stupidity. "I'LL BE FI-AIEEEEE!" Maka's back arched in pain, which only made Netherton's heel dig deeper into her stomach, her eyes flying open.

"MAKA!" It seemed like his mind had gone blank, only leaving her name in his mind. "MAKA JUST HANG ON! I'LL BE RIGHT THERE!" Taking a few steps back, Soul rammed his shoulder into the door, screwing logic and trying to knock down a solid steel door. He hissed in pain, his shoulder already beginning to bruise.

"You're running out of time, Stanasloik," Netherton growled out, moving his foot from the bullet wound to her chest, his foot resting between her blood covered breasts. "It's too bad you know," he said, leaning down so that he could see right into her fogged over green eyes. "You're such a pretty young lady. It seems like such a shame to waste you on that little disgrace, but oh well."

Maka growled, spitting in his face. Netherton hissed, wiping his face and standing again. He pressed his foot down, and Maka gasped, trying to catch her breath. "Blair…" she gasped out, eyes fluttering closed. "I'm so sorry..." With that, Maka's eyes closed, the blonde pilot falling into blackness.

"MAKAAAAA!" Soul screamed, eyes wide. "YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! I'LL KILL YOU! MAKA WAKE UP!"

**~O**

Blair felt the tears running down her face, watching in wide-eyed horror as Maka's feet (the only things she could see from her hiding place) plopped to the side.

Blair knew that she was dead.

Maka was dead, because of her.

_Dead. _Her friend was_ dead._

A feeling like nothing she had ever felt before burned through her veins, her amber eyes dilating to the size of pinpoints. Two weeks of living on the street as a cat had instilled in her a new set of instincts. Instincts that any feral cat would need. She felt these instincts coming back the surface as she crawled back out of her hiding place and shifted easily.

"Ah!" Stanasloik exclaimed happily, his eye lighting up. "Finally, my dear, you see reason," he said with a soft smile. He stepped forward, gathering the shaking cat woman in his arms. He didn't see her wide eyes, or her clenched fists. He didn't notice the way her tail and ears twitched violently.

"Okay, great, you got her," Netherton said with roll of his eyes, kicking the body that lay at his feet. "Can we go now-"

"GAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Netherton's head shot up, his brown eyes wide as he watched the spectacle before him. Blair's head was buried in Stanasloik's neck, one of her hands buried in his black hair and the other holding his shoulder in a death grip. The Recluse's captain stared straight ahead, eyes wide as his mouth opened and closed in pain. Blood began to drip from his mouth and Netherton took a few steps back.

"What's going on!" he yelled, eyes wide. On the other side of the steel door, Soul watched in horror as Blair moved her hand from his hair to the other side of his head, and with a low growl, pulled her head back. She pushed him in the opposite direction, and the Arachnophobia captain coughed up blood as Blair ripped a chunk of his neck out with her teeth, spitting the flesh out of her mouth and jumping back slightly. Blood covered her lips, and she growled loudly.

"How… DARE YOU!" she screeched, leaping forward through the air, claws extended. Stanasloik, who was clutching at the hole in his neck, made a shocked gurgling voice as her nails found purchase in his eye socket. He yelled in agony as Blair pulled back with a sob, ripping his already dead eye out of its socket. She threw it to the side, the bloodlust burning through her veins intensifying when she heard his screams of pain.

Netherton watched in horror as the two fell to the floor and out of his sight. All he could hear was Stanasloik's screams and Blair's sobs, and it felt like he had been dropped into a horror novel that his wife was so fond of.

"SHE WAS MY FRIEND!" Blair screeched, tears rolling freely from her wide, bloodlust-filled eyes. "AND YOU KILLED HER! HOW _DARE_ YOU!"

The blonde man's eyes widened when he watched Stanasloik's arm land at his feet. The screams from his subordinate had died long ago along with his subordinate. He felt no grief for him, but with Blair like this, he decided that his best course of action would be to run.

A gunshot rang loud and clear through the bridge, and Netherton fell to the ground with a yell, brown eyes wide. Blair stood tall, her eyebrows and ears pulled down in anger and rage. The hand that held Stanasloik's pistol fell to her side, and while avoiding the body that lay on the floor, she unlocked the door and pulled it aside to reveal a blood-covered Soul clutching at his shoulder.

Soul's eyes widened at the sight in front of him. Blair was covered head to toe in blood, two streaks from where she had been crying the only clean part of her face. Her clothing was torn and blood stained, and her eyes were wide with bloodlust. For a moment, Soul was truly afraid of her, but then her lower lip trembled and she sobbed, head falling back.

"They k-killed her," was all she could say, and Soul's eyes widened in horror. He shot past the crying cat woman and dropped to his knees at Maka's side, collecting her body into his arms and clutching her close to him.

"No, she can't be dead," he growled, shaking his head. "That's impossible." He looked up at Blair and the look that passed between them was full of grief and bloodlust.

"Do excuse me while I kill the man that ruined my life," Blair hissed, eyes still wide.

"Be my guest," Soul deadpanned, brushing back a few strands of Maka's hair and cupping her blood stained cheek.

Twirling Stanasloik's pistol in her hand like Kidd had taught her to, she turned towards Netherton. He was trying to crawl away and Blair barred at her teeth at the cowardly man. "_You," _she hissed, flipping him over with her foot and then slamming her foot down on his leg, exactly where she had shot him. Her head rolled back and her eyes drifted closed with a sadistic smile as his pained yelp echoed throughout the bridge. Blair's head shot right back up though, and the sadistic smile turned into a scowl.

"You killed my only family." _Boom_, she shot him in the other leg. "You turned me into some kind of twisted creature." _Boom_, she shot him in the stomach. "You put me up for sale like livestock, let's not forget you beat me every night for two months straight." _Boom boom_. One bullet to the shoulder, another going straight through his ear. Each gunshot was quickly followed by Netherton's cry of pain. "I would love to drag this torture out longer," Blair said with her head cocked to the side, sighing in disappointment, "But I have to mourn my friend, who, by the way, you killed. So I'm just going to have to kill you now." The angry purple-haired woman pulled back the hammer and aimed at the spot right between his eyes before she brought it to rest against her chin, looking like a young girl who was chewing over a difficult question on a quiz. "Oh, but first-" she brought the pistol down and shot him twice in the groin, the corners of her mouth pulling up into a sadistic smile. "You suck in bed you stupid retarded fuck."

With that, she fired her last bullet right between his eyes, watching with dull amber eyes as the man that had haunted her nightmares for the past two years died at her feet. The pistol she had held in her hand clattered to the floor, the bloodlust that had burned in her dying as he did. Tears began to flow again and Blair turned, heading towards the two people that had taken her in.

Soul looked up as Blair approached, his eyes a dull red. His fire had died with the woman in his arms, and as Blair kneeled across from him, they were both silent.

"… M-Maka," Blair began, swallowing the lump in her throat. "I-I'm so sorry, y-you don't even know. I owe you so much, and then you had to go and die because of me… I don't think I'll have be able to repay you!" Blair finally broke, cradling her head in her hands as she sobbed over the loss of the pilot.

"… Die? I didn't die you idiots."

Both Blair and Soul's heads shot up, staring at the girl in Soul's arms as her eyes fluttered open. Maka winced in pain as she regained consciousness, clutching her stomach. Soul and Blair just stared at her, eyes wide in shock as the girl they thought dead popped her neck, looking at Blair with confused green eyes. "Why are you covered in blood?" she asked innocently, reaching up to cradle the cat woman's head in her palms, twisting Blair's head back in forth. "What did you do, stand too close when somebody exploded?"

"OH MAKA!" The blonde pilot squeaked when Blair lurched forward, hugging the pilot close to her chest. Blair was crying again, only tears of joy this time. "I thought he had killed you!"

"Oh please," Maka said with a pained smile, the pain in her stomach intensifying as the cat woman hugged her. "It takes more than that to kill me." She smirked and Blair laughed loudly. Maka turned to look at Soul, and stopped when he gripped the back of her head roughly and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Don't you _ever_ scare me like that again," he hissed in her ear, crimson eyes firmly closed as he felt her pulse thrum happily along next to his. "_EVER_. You hear me?"

"Loud and clear Captain," Maka said with a small smile, her arms coming up to wrap around the man that was holding her close. Soul turned his head and pressed his lips roughly against her cheek, making Maka beam happily. He pulled back, then laughed at the mark his blood stained lips had left on her cheek.

"Look at us," he said with a smirk, gesturing to the three of them. "How long do you think it'll take to get all of this blood off of us?"

"A couple hours in the shower," Maka said with a shrug.

"_Forever," _Blair said with a frown, her head so tilted forward that her bangs covered her face. Maka turned and frowned, twining her fingers with Blair's bloodstained ones.

"MAKA!" The three looked up as Tsubaki sprinted into the bridge, her eyes wide. "Oh god, Maka!" The older Japanese woman dropped to her knees and her hands fluttered over Maka's body. "You're hurt!"

"No way," Maka said sarcastically, quirking one eyebrow. "I couldn't tell."

"We need to get you to the infirmary!" Tsubaki said with a frown. Maka opened her mouth to protest (she was so comfortable in Soul's arms), but the albino captain interrupted her.

"She's right, we need to get to you Kidd," Soul said, moving one arm under her legs and lifted, picking her up bridal style. "You may not have died, but you lost a lot of blood."

"DIED! WHAT!" Maka winced at Tsubaki's loud shrill. Just as she was calm and quiet before a battle, Tsubaki had a tendency to panic over every injury afterwards.

"I'm fine, just get me to the infirmary," Maka said tiredly, wrapping her arms around Soul's neck and turning her head to ask Blair to follow.

The words died in her throat when she saw just how much carnage Blair had caused. A pile of gore and clothing sat in one corner, and Maka could only tell that it was Stanasloik by the fact that Netherton was laying in a pile of his own blood a few feet away from her position, riddled with bullet holes. The blonde's wide eyes moved back to Blair, who was also looking at the carnage she had caused with wide tear filled eyes.

She opened her mouth to offer the older woman words of comfort, but Soul turned and began to trot away, Blair following quickly after. Soon, the soft and steady thrum of Soul's pulse lulled her back to sleep, her quiet breathing was the only evidence she was alive (Blair, Tsubaki, and Soul had checked).

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

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	7. Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

**O~**

**Blair Arc: Chapter 6**

**Should I Stay Or Should I Go?**

_**(THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M FOR NAKED PEOPLES)**_

**~O**_**  
**_

The first thing Maka felt when she woke up was a comforting warmth in her side, directly where she had been shot. The first thing she _heard_ was the sound of two people bickering loudly next to her.

"Excuse me, but I think I can take care of my own patients."

"Well sorry for trying to help my friend get better!"

'_Kidd? Kim_?' Maka thought wearily as her eyes fluttered open, wincing at the slight pain in her stomach. It wasn't nearly as bad as before, but it was still sore. Her head flopped to the side, her loose hair framing her head like a halo on her pillow. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight to her left.

"Welcome back Maka," Liz said tiredly, waving from where she lay on the infirmary counter. Maka rolled onto her side, propping herself up on her forearm and ignoring both Kidd and Kim's protests.

"Liz," Maka said quietly. "What happened to you?" the older blonde scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"Managed to cut myself while rolling off the catwalk dodging some bullets," she admitted sheepishly, lifting her shirt slightly and revealing a set of stitches along a cut about as long as Maka's hand. "And the blue haired idiot over there got his nose broken by his gun when it recoiled."

"I told you!" a loud voice screeched to Maka's right, and she flipped so that she was leaning back on both arms. "I was brutally attacked by a hundred of the enemy and one of them hit me with a baseball bat!" BlackStar said, his nose covered in a band aid. Both blondes laughed at his unrealistic scenario, but Maka winced in pain, falling back on the cot with a hiss.

"Maka!" the four aeronauts yelled, Kidd and Kim quickly rushing to the girl's side.

"See!" Kim yelled, turning on the ebony haired man. "This is what happens when you interrupt me while I'm healing someone! Her wound opened up again!" Glaring heavily at Kidd, the raccoon witch turned back towards Maka and pushed her back down. "Just calm down Maka," she said with a soothing voice, wincing when Maka hissed loudly. She lifted Maka's shirt up and wiped away the blood that had begun to leak out again with a frown. She placed her hands gently over Maka's wound and the other three watched in silent amazement as Kim's tail popped out and swished behind her. "Tanunucoon Raccooncoo n Ponpon Ponkitanu Pon Pon Pon," the witch chanted, her hair whipping around her face. Maka's pained hisses gave way to tired whimpers, and her expression went from one of pain to one of calm. Her eyes fluttered open again and she twisted her head to smile slightly at Kim.

"Thanks," the pilot said in a tired voice. Kim smiled slightly at her friend then turned and leveled Kidd with a hard lime green stare.

"I would have healed you more, but SOMEONE is determined to make you suffer," she hissed, her raccoon tail twitching irritably behind her.

"Her body would stop healing right if she got too used to your magic doing it for her!" Kidd shouted back, the two doctors launching back into their argument from before. Maka sighed quietly, shaking her head at the two's childish behavior before looking down at the spot where she had been shot. She winced at the dried blood that surrounded the wound and then realized that she was covered in the dried substance.

"Tsubaki tried to get most of it off," Liz said, noticing Maka's look of disgust. "But you should probably take a shower anyways."

"Yeah, that sounds nice," Maka agreed, sitting up with a wince and swinging her legs over the edge of the cot. She stood quickly and almost immediately fell flat on her ass. She yelped loudly and just barely caught herself on the cot, holding her head in one hand.

"Be careful," Kidd scolded, trotting over to her side and helping her stand. "You lost a lot of blood, and you're going to be very dizzy." Maka moaned in agreement, making both Liz and BlackStar laugh.

"I'm gonna go take a shower," she said, pushing off of Kidd and managing to stand with a minimal amount of stumbling. "Do you want me to come back here once I'm done?"

"That's your choice." Maka nodded once, and with a wave to the other occupants, headed towards the shower room.

The shower room consisted of six stalls, each separated from the other by a waist high tile wall. Maka stumbled to the stall in the furthest right stall, and began to strip down. She yelped in pain as she took her shirt off, but besides that had no trouble getting her clothes off. She started the water and sighed happily as the hot water hit her skin. Grabbing a bar of soap, the blonde nineteen year old began to wash the blood off her body. The water was tinted red as it went down the drain, and Maka smiled into the spray. She lifted one arm to wash her side and cried out in pain, her eyes flying wide open as she fell to her knees, clutching at her side and hissing at the pain. As the gunshot wound throbbed madly, Maka curled up into a ball and whimpered quietly, unaware of the footsteps running towards her.

"Maka?" The pilot's head shot up at the voice. "Maka are you okay?"

"Yeah Soul," she called back, wincing. "I'm fine."

"Then what were you yelling about?" Soul's voice sounded closer, and she briefly wondered why he was at the showers anyways.

"Nothing, I just hurt my side a little." All was silent for a moment except for the water raining down on Maka's head.

"I'm coming in," Soul called, his footsteps echoing in the shower room. Maka's eyes widened and she shot up to her knees, trying to shout her protests, only to cry out again and fall on her uninjured side, her back to the rest of the room. The captain's footsteps took on a new urgency as he ran towards her, and he slid to a stop, towering over the shivering woman.

He had been going to check on the people in the infirmary when he had heard Maka's cry of pain, and now he was glad he had come to investigate. The poor pilot was a pitiful sight to see right now, dried blood still coating her back and her hair falling in wet clumps around her head. Her face was screwed up in pain, and Soul's stomach plummeted down to his feet.

Ignoring how his clothes were getting soaked by the shower, Soul got down on his knees and waddled closer, helping Maka sit up with her back still to him. "There," he said quietly. "That better?"

"Y-yeah," Maka said, her face a bright red. "You can go now Soul, I'm fine-" A warm hand slapped over her mouth and she briefly considered biting it as her temper flared.

"You already fell down once," Soul growled, crimson eyes narrowed at the back of her head. "I'm not leaving you alone so you can do it again. Besides," his growl turned into a devious smirk, leaning closer as Maka scrambled to cover her bare chest with her arms "It's not like I haven't seen you naked before," he purred, staring appreciatively at how the way she was trying to cover her breasts made them swell up instead.

"Yeah, on accident you pervert," Maka shot back, her head jerking around to turn the full power of her glare onto the smirking captain. "So I suggest you get out of here before I decide that I don't want to be the only one to suffer from a bullet wound." Soul sighed, rolling his eyes before reaching past the naked and fuming woman for the soap she had dropped. "Wait," Maka said, her voice going up an octave with her panic. "What are you doing?"

"Helping you out," Soul said calmly, rubbing the soap between his hands. "What does it look like?"

"Soloman Daniel Evans," Maka hissed, using his full name just to piss him off, "Don't you da-EEP!" Maka's back arched like a bow when she felt two warm, broad, soapy hands rest on her shoulder blades. She hissed in pain, clutching at her wound and trying to glare at Soul out of the back of her head at the same time. "I will kill you," she snapped.

Soul simply ignored her, enjoying the way her soft wet skin felt under his hands. He began to rub circles into her back and her protests died, turning into small mewls. Soul was very glad that her back was to him, because the small sounds she was making was turning the poor man on like a lightbulb.

Ignoring the growing heat in his loins, Soul watched in satisfaction as the dried blood slowly washed down the drain, leaving behind her clean, pale skin. His hands stopped at the small of her back, and Maka hissed when his warm skins left her skin.

"See, now was that too bad? " he said smugly, washing his hands off slightly.

"T-there was no need for it!" Maka snapped, bringing her legs up to her chest and crossing one ankle in front of the other.

"Really? 'Cause it sounded to me like you enjoyed it," Soul said with a smirk, laughing at her small shriek of rage. His laughter died suddenly as he reached past Maka again to turn off the water, careful to avoid her touch. "Let me see the wound," he said quietly, crossing his legs in such a way that hid the reason for the sudden tightness in his pants. Maka turned her head around quickly, wide green eyes staring at him.

"No fucking way!" she shrieked, eyes wide in panic. Soul rolled his eyes at her theatrics and pushed gently on her shoulders.

"Maka calm down," he said. "I just want to see how well it's healing up."

"And this can't wait until I'm wearing pants!"

"No," Soul said, looking up at Maka with his lips pressed into a grim line. "It's my fault that you got hurt, I just want to see the extent." Maka's screamed protests came to a halt and she quirked her head at the drenched albino man. She tried to convince herself that she only thought that Soul looked sexy right now only because of blood loss, not the fact that he was drenching wet and she was completely and utterly naked.

"What do you mean? It's not your fault Soul," she said quietly, eyes wide and questioning. Soul growled loudly, his red eyes hidden behind colorless bangs, and Maka jumped when his fist made contact with the wall.

"I'm the one who let you go by yourself after Stanasloik," he hissed. "I should have gone with you, then you wouldn't be hurt." Maka was silent for a few moments before sighing.

"Fine, you can see the damn hole," she said quietly, rolling her eyes at his theatrics. Soul looked up slightly, the last rant killing his mood completely, and nearly got a nosebleed when Maka leaned back slightly, her legs firmly pressed together. Her arms were still tightly crossed across her breasts, but Soul wasn't looking at the pale orbs right now. His eyes were focused on the angry pink mark marring her strong abs, located under her right ribs. He reached out and his fingers brushed lightly against the circle, making Maka hiss.

"Fuck it Soul!" she hissed, green eyes narrowed. "That hurt!"

Soul came to a complete halt before looking up at her with a laugh. "Probably not the best thing to say while naked and in the presence of a man," Soul laughed out, his laughs turning into full blown rolling on the floor guaffs when he saw Maka's expression.

Her face man, her _face._

"Ugh, you freaking pervert!" Maka yelled. "Get out of my shower!"

"Well technically it's my shower-"

"I don't care, just _leave_!" Maka unwrapped one of her arms carefully, pushing Soul roughly out of the stall. The albino captain scrambled up and ran from the room, laughing the whole way as Maka threw the soap bar at his head.

**O~**

Blair was silent as she looked out on the Paris skyline from the balcony of the Grigori, her amber eyes flat and dull. She didn't hear the balcony door slide opened and closed, but she did notice when a tall blonde man came to stand beside her.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Justin said quietly, his French accent lost in the summer breeze. The sun was setting, Justin's favorite time to be out and about in Paris. Blair apparently did not share these sentiments as she stared out at the skyline, her expression blank.

"The sky looks like blood," Blair said to no one in particular, making the older man quirk his head towards her. "But then again, everything looks like blood right now," she said with a small frown, wrapping her arms around her torso and curling in on herself. The Shibusen general sighed quietly, his bottomless blue eyes resting on Blair.

"… I'm sorry this had to happen to you," he offered quietly, jerking back when Blair's head shot up.

"I don't need your pity!" she shrieked, amber eyes burning like fire. "Those bastards deserved every single thing I did to them!" Here she faltered, her eyes falling to the ground again. "…Right?"

Justin stepped closer, his hands resting on both of her shoulders. The cat woman winced at the contact, but didn't back down. "Blair," he said calmly. "I follow in the teachings of the Lord, and the Bible says that 'An eye for and eye, a tooth for a tooth, But I say to you, do notresist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right check, turn to him the other also.'" Blair looked down at her feet, sniffing sadly. "But," he stated quickly, noticing her distress. "What those men did to you was the lowest thing any human can do to another, so I think that what you did was justified."

Blair's sniffles stopped abruptly, the cat woman looking up with wide, bloodshot eyes. "R-really?" she stammered out. Justin nodded comfortingly, taking a step back and opening his arms wide. Blair just stared at him for a few moments before her eyes watered and she sobbed loudly, running in to the man's arms. He patted her head with a smile, not caring that she was staining the front of his robes. Justin looked to his left when he heard the door to balcony slide open, and was met by a pair of shocked green eyes.

Maka blinked a few times, her jaw practically hitting the floor. Her hair was still wet from her… interesting shower, and when she had asked a very smug Soul where Blair was, he sobered up immediately and told her that she had hadn't spoken to anyone while she was unconscious (Maka had thrown a fit when she learned that she had been out for nearly 36 hours). She had immediately began to search for the twenty two year old, and instead was met by this. She quirked her head to the side and Justin just nodded once, pulling away from Blair slightly so he could look her in the eye.

"Now Blair," he said sternly, the twinkle in his bottomless blue eyes making it sound fatherly instead of orderly (and considering Justin was only three years older than Blair, she huffed at the thought). "I know you care a lot about the crew and that you don't want to leave." Blair nodded once. "So I'm going to give you a very special job, that only you can do, understand?"

"Aye aye," Blair said with a small smile.

"I want you to report to me every week about the Grigori's travels okay? I want to know everything that's going on," Justin shot Maka a sly look before leaning closer to Blair so that he could whisper in her ear, "especially between Maka and Soul. Do you think you can do that?"

"Of course!" Blair said happily, bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet while her tail swished behind her.

"Well," Maka drawled, stepping up to Blair's side and shooting her a wide smile as she linked their arms together, "I guess that means you'll have to stay on board, won't you now?" The cat woman laughed loudly, bringing Maka into a bone crushing hug.

"Thank you!" she cheered excitedly, tears of happiness rolling down her cheeks.

"What's this about Blair stayin'?" The three looked up at the red eyed man that leaned in the doorway. His expression was stern, and Blair shrunk a little under his intimidating gaze, but then he laughed and smirked widely, nodding his approval. Maka and Blair both cheered happily, Maka running over and giving Soul a quick hug. Soul's arms automatically made their way around her waist as he pulled her closer, smiling into her still damp hair.

"This doesn't mean I forgive you about the shower thing," Maka whispered in Soul's ear, her smile never leaving her face (though her eyes were practically burning through his skull).

"Wouldn't dream of it love."

A few minutes later, the four ended up in the galley, with the rest of the crew sitting at the table (Kim had gone back to the Fire Storm a while ago). "I've got good news everyone," Soul started, resting most of his weight on his right leg. "I know we've all come to think of Blair as a part of the crew in the past few days, and it is my pleasure to say that as of right now, she officially is." Blair beamed happily as the crew erupted in happy hoots and hollers, Patti jumping up and tackle glomping the happy cat woman.

"Saw that coming," Kidd said with a small smile as he also got up to congratulate the happy woman. The rest of the crew quickly followed, and soon it was just Soul and Justin standing on the sidelines.

"I expect you to take good care of her," Justin said quietly, his French accented voice smooth. Soul turned and looked at him with lazy red eyes, the corner of his mouth tugging up in a smile.

"I will, I will," he said teasingly, his hands finding their way to his pockets. "Though after that fight, I don't think I'll need to."

"I wasn't talking about Blair."

Soul's eyes widened with understanding and he looked away from the smiling general, his face a light shade of red. He shuffled his feet as he nodded once. "Don't I always?" he said quietly.

"I'm not saying you don't," Justin assured with a small nod, "but remember that Maka is a young woman, and eventually she's going to want more than this life in the air can offer."

"I seriously doubt it," Soul said with a laugh. Justin laughed along before his blue eyes hardened.

"And remember, if you break my little sister's heart, I break your spine." Soul's eyes widened, but Justin was already walking towards Maka to say his goodbyes. Soul gaped at him for a few moments longer before scowling.

"Damn priest, who does he think I am? As if I would ever hurt Maka."

**~O**

The woman stood in the center of an abandoned church, her lifeless pink hair hiding her features. Her clothes were dirty and a little torn, as if she had been traveling for a long time.

"They killed Thomas," Mizune growled quietly. "I want to make them pay, and I know that if I join your crew I can." Her head jerked up, revealing two puffy red eyes. "I want revenge, and you can give it to me!" she shouted, her voice breaking.

"Hm," a smooth voice hummed, the voice slick and feminine. "And what would you do for me in order to get this revenge?"

"I offer to you my magic," Mizune said, bowing at the waist. "And my gun would only shoot for you. I am loyal to those I serve, and thus, would be loyal to you, my Captain." The faceless voice made another noise of thought before her hand slithered out of the darkness, clasping Mizune's palm.

"I see you learned from Thomas in the ways of charm," she said with a dark chuckle. "Alright, I accept."

"**Welcome to the Cobra."**

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

**V**

**V**

**V**


	8. Detective Maka And The Grease Stain

**O~**

**Detective Maka And The Mysterious Grease Stain**

**~O**

"SOLOMON DANIEL EVANS!" Soul sighed as he heard his pilot storm towards the bridge, her footsteps heavily and angry. It made sense, honestly. After nearly two months of nothing bad happening (no major injuries, no bitching from HQ, just flying in the air, taking out as many Arachnophobia ships as possible), clearly something needed to go wrong. And of _course _it had to be from Maka, who hadn't been giving him any trouble these past six weeks.

So Soul just sighed, running his fingers through his long white hair as he turned to face his fate.

"SOUL!" Maka yelled, finally coming into view. "I need you to grab my butt."

…

Wait.

_What?_

He opened his mouth and closed it again, his crimson eyes wide. She did _not _just ask what he thinks she just asked, did she? She _looked _serious, clad in her work clothing with her grease covered hands planted firmly on her hips and a rather adorable scowl on her face.

But still.

_What!_

"Um," the captain said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously as his Adam's apple bobbed up and down, "May I ask why?" Maka rolled her eyes and spun around, popping one hip out and pointing to her rump.

"Because I need to compare it to this!" she growled, and Soul noticed (after realizing that he had a few blissful moments where he could stare at her ass without fear of retribution) that there was a large, hand-shaped grease stain on her shorts, right over her right back pocket.

"And what," Soul said with a quirked eyebrow," Is wrong with just _asking _me if I did it?"

"You could lie!" Maka shouted in protest. An _extremely _unamused expression on his face, Soul sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Okay," he said, grabbing Maka's shoulder and spinning her around that she could face him. He sunk down into the pilot's chair (Maka quickly protested, saying that he had no right to sit in _her _chair) and looked up at the livid blonde through his snow white bangs. "Let's start from the beginning."

"Well," Maka sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "I was working on the engine…"

**O~**

Maka reached her arm back, searching blindly for her toolbox. The engine had been acting up recently, and she wanted to get rid of any problems before they started. She was currently jammed between gears, her torso stuck in the engine and her rump and legs sticking out.

"Having fun?" Maka rolled her eyes, not bothering to come out from inside the engine.

"Oh, just shut up BlackStar," she said with a smirk, aiming a kick in the direction where she had heard his voice. Her smirk grew when her foot met shin and BlackStar yelped in pain. Ignoring his cussing, Maka continued to work. "What did you want Star?"

"NO ONE CAN HURT A BIG STAR LIKE ME! APOLOGIZE TO YOUR GOD!" Maka rolled her eyes and shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

"BlackStar, I will kick you _out of_ my engine room, now what do you want?" she growled.

"I just need some .8 connector cords for some new weapons I'm working on right now," BlackStar said, leaning against the engine.

"Third drawer from the left, second one down in the drawers over my work table," Maka droned, pulling one arm out and pointing with eerie accuracy at the exact drawer BlackStar needed. The blunette nodded and after grabbing a few and shouting his thanks at the mechanic, he was gone.

Maka worked in peaceful quiet for a few minutes, singing an old sky shanty to herself as she worked.

"And my love~ is waiting for me~ as I fly~ over the sea~"

"Maka, you in here?" Maka sighed, slumping slightly.

"Yeah Kidd, I'm in here. What do you need?" she yelled, shifting around to reach a particularly tricky bolt.

"I've been having an issue with the comm system," he said, his voice sounding tired. "Do you think you could look at that next?"

"Yeah, sure." Maka stopped when she heard the doctor yawn loudly. "Long night?"

"Patti's pissed at me again," Kidd admitted with a sigh. "We were fighting all night."

"Over what, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Apparently I sabotaged her chances with some guy last time we were in port," he said with a growl.

"… Did you?" Maka asked, pausing to ask for a different wrench.

"Well, yeah," Kidd said as he passed her the particular tool. "But I mean, come on. We've been together for nearly a year, yet she can't stop flirting with every guy she sees. Besides, that guy was bad news."

"Patti's still pretty young," Maka said as she flipped onto her other side, "She doesn't quite think of relationships as you do. You just have to explain to her that you thought the guy was a piece of shit and that as long as she wants to sleep in your bed, she needs to figure out how to be in a serious relationship." Kidd nodded and began to walk away, but one of Maka's legs shot up and stopped him from leaving. "Don't say it like that though, she'll murder you in two seconds flat."

"Thanks Maka," Kidd said with a smile, patting her leg. "You're a life saver."

"I thought that was _your_ job Doctor?" Kidd just laughed and once again, Maka was alone.

She had gotten back in the rhythm of working in silence, swinging her hips to a song in her head as she worked, when she felt a broad hand on the small of her back. She yelped, her head hitting the top of the engine as she began to cuss loudly.

"The HELL!" she yelled, loud throaty laughter echoing in the engine room. "Soul, damn it, stop sneaking up on me!"

"Sorry Maka," Soul said with a laugh, wiping the tears of mirth from his eyes, "You just make it too easy."

"Yeah yeah," she grumbled, glad that her blush was hidden in the maze of wires and bolts. "What did you want, _Captain_?"

"What, a guy can't check up on his best friend?" The silence that followed (along with the deadpan expression that he _knew_ she was wearing) was answer enough and Soul sighed. "Okay, I wanted to ask how much longer these repairs are going to take," he said, leaning against the tool bench and watching her as she worked.

"Probably just another hour or two," Maka said calmly, unaware of the way the albino's eyes were following her every move. "I just need to get the hydropumps back in alignment (1)."

"We don't need any parts?"

"_Need_ or _want_?" Soul chuckled, shaking his head and Maka smiled widely.

"I'll take that as a no," he said as he pushed off the wall. "See me when we're ready to go," the twenty year old ordered as he began to walk back towards the bridge.

"Yeah, whatever," Maka said dismissively. Silence reigned over the blonde's domain again until she heard a quiet meow. "Hey Blair," she said happily, sticking one hand out so that she could wave at the older woman.

"Hi Maka-chan!" Blair said happily, skipping up to the younger woman. She had gotten some new clothes a few ports back, and now was wearing a dark purple dress that barely hit mid-thigh with a purple and black corset on top, her shoulders bare. "How are you?"

"Good, just finishing up some work," Maka said with a shrug. "You?"

"Patti just finished teaching me how to shot a rifle!" Blair said proudly, her chest puffing out in pride.

"I thought that you were done with your defense lessons?" Maka asked, a hint of worry in her voice. Ever since she had seen the destruction Blair had caused during the fight with Stanasloik and Netherton, Maka didn't think the lessons were necessary. But the cat woman still insisted that she be taught how to properly handle a gun.

"I almost am," Blair said with a shrug, "I just need to kidnap a mortar from BlackStar-"

"No."

"But-"

"Nuhuh."

"-It's the last thing I have to learn-"

"I refuse."

"- I promise not to blow anymore stuff up-"

"_Blair." _The cat woman came to a halt, her amber eyes narrowed in irritation. "The fact that you had to say 'blow _anymore _stuff up,' worries me enough, I am _not_ letting you loose on the world with a _mortar._ Besides, I told BlackStar no mortars, bazookas, or flamethrowers. He wouldn't have one."

"But I just saw three of each in his workshop the other day!"

"…" Blair took a wide step back when Maka pushed herself violently out of the engine, her face twisted in rage. Tucking her wrench in the waistband of her shorts, Maka stormed off towards the blue haired man's den, grumbling death threats under her breath the whole way.

"-Gonna tie him to a cannon ball by the balls then fire him into a volcano filled with acidic lava-"

"Woooo, Maka! Getting some action in the engine room?" Maka came to a halt, looking at the two sisters sitting in the common area over her shoulder.

"Um, what?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. Liz just smirked widely, standing and walking towards the younger blonde, throwing a long arm over her thin shoulders.

"Please Maka, I see the evidence clear as day. You can't hide from me," she said with a smirk, poking Maka's cheek. "So, how was it? Was Soul good to you?"

"Liz, I have no _fucking_ clue what you're talking about," Maka deadpanned, one eyebrow quirking up. Liz's smirk faded slightly, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"But your butt-"

"Should it worry me that you were looking at my butt?

"-And the handprint-"

"The _what."_ Liz jerked back and Maka's growl, her eyes narrowed.

"Maka, honey," Liz said slowly. "There is a _huge _handprint on your butt." Maka was silent for a few moments before she twisted her torso around, staring at the large black handprint for a few moment before she exploded.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" she screeched, green eyes filled with fire and rage. "WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FIASCO!" (2) Liz smiled sympathetically as Patti practically fell off the couch laughing, clutching her sides.

"Come on sweetie," Liz said in a low, smooth voice. "It's not that bad-"

"It's the _principle _of the thing!" Maka yelled, storming towards a certain blunette's lair. "And I'm getting to the bottom of this," she growled.

"Go Detective Maka!" Patti cheered in a teasing tone, crying tears of mirth. Liz just sighed.

**~O**

"Wait," Soul said, holding up his hands in the universal sign of _Hold up. _"You didn't even feel it when someone, who is not me, left that mark?"

"No," Maka said with a shake of her head. She pouted prettily as she walked over to the dashboard and began to play with some of the controls. Soul tilted his head to the left slightly, looking at the mark that marred the woman's jeans (no, he wasn't checking her out, what are you talking about crazies?). "I didn't notice it until Liz pointed it out."

"And you went to BlackStar because…" he drawled, quirking an eyebrow.

"He was the first one in the engine room," the pilot said with a shrug.

**O~**

"Wait, so you want me to do _what?" _The look on BlackStar's face was similar to the one that he wore when Maka had explained to him that male seahorses carry the babies (Part confusion, part horror).

"Look, it's either you, Kidd, or Soul," Maka explained slowly, her eyes narrowed. "And I wouldn't put it past you to do it as a trick."

"Maka-chan, I really don't think he would do that," Tsubaki said calmly, surprisingly tranquil for someone who had just watched her best friend storm in and accuse her lover of grabbing her ass.

"Yeah Maka," BlackStar agreed, barely looking up from the gun he had returned to. "You're off limits, everyone knows that."

"'Off limits' or not," Maka said, making little quotation marks in the air, "You are still a suspect, so either give me absolute proof that you didn't do it or let me compare the hand prints." BlackStar was quiet for a few moments, clearly deep in thought. He stood silently, walking over to his own workbench and rubbing his right hand in puddle of grease he had neglected to clean up. Satisfied with the amount of the black liquid on his hand, the blunette hauled Tsubaki up with his other hand and, spinning her around quickly, smacked her ass as hard as he could.

Tsubaki yelped loudly, her face a bright red as Maka gaped at BlackStar. "What the hell-" she started, eyes wide. BlackStar just cut her a look and after wiping the rest of the grease of his hand, positioned Tsubaki next to Maka so the their shoulders were touching (at least as much as they could for two girls with such a great height difference). He took a few minutes looking from one handprint to the next, and after nodding once to himself, he turned Tsubaki around so that Maka could see the hand print.

"Look," he said, pointing to the stain. "My handprint is _bigger_ than the one on your ass."

"BlackStar, was this really necessary-?"

"I guess," Maka trailed off, sighing loudly. She suddenly whipped her head around, pinning BlackStar to the floor with her green eyes. "But we still have the issue about those _forbidden _weapons you've been mod-ing behind my back," she hissed, pulling her wrench from her waistband. The blue haired male made a very un-manly squeaking noise, his turquoise eyes wide and ran for the door, screaming about how she would "never take me alive!"

**~O**

"So that's why BlackStar was hiding in the cargo hold," Soul said to himself, dragging his hand down his face. Maka just smirked, her arms once again crossed over her chest. "Then you did what?" he asked, frankly a little scared of what she would say next.

"I went to Kidd next," Maka said with a shrug, playing with a piece of her hair distractedly.

"And?"

"It went pretty much the same way," she shrugged again.

**O~**

Kidd stared at Maka pretty much the exact same way BlackStar had, equal parts confusion and horror. The nineteen year old just crossed her arms and leaned against the counter of the infirmary, one ash blonde eyebrow arching higher than the other.

"You want me to… what?" he asked, unsure of his own ears.

"You heard me," Maka said with a roll of her eyes. "Someone left that mark, and it wasn't BlackStar, so you're the next suspect."

"How could it be me?" Kidd reasoned, putting some medicine away. "If it had been, don't you think Soul would have noticed, or Blair?" But Maka was already shaking her head, a slight frown on her face.

"I don't think Soul would have noticed," Kidd snorted, "And I know for a fact Blair wouldn't have."

"Why is that?"

"She's part cat," Maka enunciated, bending forward slightly at the waist. "She probably was staring at shiny things the whole time." At this Kidd did laugh, making Maka snort good naturedly. The two had always gotten along fairly easily, and Tsubaki had once admitted that she thought that Kidd would have after the pilot, not the energetic blonde (both Kidd and Soul had shot that idea down immediately). But Maka's sour mood returned with a vengeance, and she pushed off from the counter. "Look, prove to me that it wasn't you, or I'll have to drag Patti into this," she threatened, pointing at the blonde that was playing with a giraffe stuffed toy on the couch not ten feet away. Kidd shuddered, his pale face looking even whiter than normal.

Looking around the infirmary, Kidd found a sheet of paper and a pen. Setting them on the counter, he quickly traced his right hand (and thanked his lucky stars that he was ambidextrous), picking the piece of paper up and taking it over to Maka. "Turn around," he instructed, and Maka did as she was told. The doctor held his tracing side by side with the mark on Maka's rump, and after a few seconds nodded.

"My handprint is longer than this one," he said, showing Maka the tracing. She stared at it for a few seconds before sighing, handing it back to the ebony haired man.

"Thanks Kidd," she said with another sigh, walking out of the infirmary with just a wave.

"Good luck!" Kidd called after her.

**~O**

"And now there's just you," Maka said with a nod, her eyes narrowed. "You might as well confess. I already know it was you."

"It wasn't me!" Soul growled, standing up so that he towered over the younger woman.

"Prove it," Maka hissed. AS the two continued to picker back and forth, neither took notice of the small purple cat that had walked into the bridge.

"Maka-chan!" Blair mewled, amber eyes wide under her cute little top hat. "Wanna play with me?"

"-If you'd stop and think for a moment-"

"-Maybe if you weren't such a pompous ASS-"

"Maka-chan!" Blair yelled, shifting into a woman after a few minutes of listening to their bickering. Both pilot and captain froze looking over at the older woman. "What are you two fighting about?" she hissed, eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"Soul left this giant stain on my shorts when he grabbed my butt!" Maka yelled, pointing an accusatory finger at the enraged captain.

"How do you women come up with these crazy theories?" Soul yelled back.

"Women's intuition!"

Blair sighed, rolling her eyes when the two started to throw childish insults back and forth. "Oh for the love of," she sighed, stepping towards Maka. She grabbed both of her shoulders and spun the woman around so that she was facing away from Soul. Then she did something that left the two aeronauts completely stunned.

She reached down and smacked her hand over the print, her hand the perfect size.

Maka's right eye began to twitch violently, gravity pulling her jaw to the floor. Soul, on the other hand, was clutching at his nose, trying to keep the nosebleed to a minimum (and failing miserably).

"There," Blair said, quirking an eyebrow at Soul and Maka, "Mystery solved. Will come play with me _now?" _Maka just gaped at the cat woman, eyes wide.

"Buh… Buh… But-"

"_Why!" _Soul finished, crimson eyes wide. Blair just shrugged, finally removing her hand from Maka's rump.

"I was curious," she said simply. "Her butt looked kinda squishy, so I tested it's squishiness. I must have accidently gotten some grease on my hand when I came into the room."

"Squishy!" Maka cried indigently, her mood shifting from horrified to angered. "My butt is not squishy!"

"And now we know!" the cat woman said happily, making Soul (who had wiped away most of the blood with the back of his hand) laugh like a hyena with a sore throat, rough and deep. Maka sighed, holding her head in her hands.

"How about you go ask Patti to play with you?" she suggested meekly. Blair nodded, and with a wave goodbye, ran down the steps.

"…Well!" Soul said with a clap of his hands, smirking deviously. "I guess that's over with!"

"Blair, why would it be Blair?"

"I do believe you owe me an apology."

"She's a _girl, _why would she grab my butt?"

"I'll take a written apology if you need time to collect your thoughts."

"Why on earth would she-"

"And Maka?"

"WHAT!" The pilot looked up with wide green eyes, her expression one of great confusion. Soul's smirk grew, and before she could react, his hand swung down and smacked her hard where Blair's hand had left the print. The blonde woman yelped loudly, her back arching and her eyes flying open.

"That's _mine," _he whispered huskily in her ear, sending shivers running up and down her back.

With a small, proud smile, the captain walked away with his hands in his pockets, whistling to himself. Maka watched him leave with wide eyes, and once she was sure he was gone, she smiled, a bright red blush marking her cheeks.

"Off limits, huh?" she said with a cocked eyebrow.

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

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	9. A Working Man

***IMPORTANT CONTEST INFO***

**I'm holding a contest during the BlackStar Arc! If you design a cover for the BlackStar Arc, colored and everything, you will receive a special, never before seen one-shot from AG, the first draft of how Maka and Soul met! It's totally different from the version I posted, so it should be super fun. The contest will last the entire BlackStar Arc, and if you would like more details, please PM me or message me on dA.**

**O~**

**BlackStar Arc: Chapter 1**

**A Working Man**

_(THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M FOR SLIGHT LEMON)_

**~O**

Their loud moans filled the otherwise quiet ship, the other occupants blissfully unaware of their risqué activities. Long, delicate fingers tangled into matted blue hair as his broad scarred hands explored her lean body. Their breath mixed together in a way that was easy as blinking to them, their hips rocking together in a lustful dance. Her large blue eyes fluttered closed as her back arched, pressing herself even more into him, their bodies merging as only lovers' can. He growled under his breath, his eyes screwed shut as he tried to control himself. She was delicate, breakable, and he had to be gentle-

Any coherent thought flew out of his brain when those soft hands reached forward and grabbed his hips, slamming him into her. They both moaned in unison, his turquoise eyes rolling back. As they both reached completion, he slumped on top of her, his tan body covering her completely. Their lips met in a sweet, lazy kiss, both aeronauts out of breath and exhausted. He slid out of her, rolling onto his side and pulling her naked form to his chest.

Tsubaki smiled gently, her long raven locks spilling across her lover's chest. She, not for the first time, marveled over how well they moved together. '_Practice makes perfect,' _she thought with a small giggle, and she felt BlackStar's eyes on her bare back.

"What?" he asked, a lazy smile on his face. "What's so funny?"

"Oh, I was just thinking about how well we can do that now," Tsubaki said shyly, one hand running up and down the blunette's chest, her fingers leaving goosebumps wherever they traveled. "It's almost like dancing."

"Yeah, except with less clothing. And I actually _know _the steps," BlackStar joked, pressing his lips to the crown of Tsubaki's head. She beamed at him, cuddling closer to his chest. He sighed, looking up at the ceiling. How long had they been doing this? Been in this constant loop? It felt like forever, though it really was only three years since they had met.

Three years. It's amazing how much could change in that amount of time.

There's no doubt that Tsubaki had changed him ever since they had met in that seedy bar in Scottland. When he had taken her on board the Grigori to show off, and she somehow managed to follow him into the air. The two had been practically inseparable since. They had clicked together like the opposite ends of a magnet, him loud and flamboyant, her shy and quiet.

"Are you ever going to tell me where you got this tattoo?" BlackStar was ripped from his thoughts, looking at the star shaped mark on his right shoulder. Tsubaki gently traced the outline and BlackStar winced, painful memories and flashbacks hitting him like a ton of bricks.

_The sound of fire, people screaming as they burned. A thousand Deathbucks in a medium sized case._

_The sick splish of blood as a man's neck was slit. 400 Deathbucks, passed under the table of a shady bar._

_A woman shielding her infant son from the barrel of a pistol. An extra 30 Deathbucks for the infant's head._

"BlackStar?" Tsubaki asked with worry in her voice. She watched as her lover began to shake violently, turquoise eyes wide. He screwed his eyes shut then opened them again, looking at the Japanese woman with a small, sad smile.

"Maybe one day babe," he said tiredly, "Maybe one day." Tsubaki nodded, satisfied with his answer (for now), and soon BlackStar felt Tsubaki's slow, even breaths graze his sweat-soaked chest. She had fallen asleep on him… Again.

And he couldn't find it in him to care.

**O~**

"So let me get this straight," Soul said with a shake of his head, grunting as he lifted the heavy box. "You want me to give you the rest of the day off, _and _pay you early, when you've only helped us move one crate?" BlackStar nodded, leaning against the side of the ship. "You're out of your god damn mind."

"How 'bout after we finish unloading?" the blunette asked impatiently, also grabbing a box in his hurry to get away from the ship. Soul cut him a look, one white eyebrow arched high over a crimson eye.

"And you're impatient because…"

"I need to get something for Tsubaki," he answered plainly, looking over at where the tall Japanese woman stood by the smaller blonde pilot. The whole crew was busy, moving the cargo off the ship and onto the docks. Arachnophobia had been surprisingly quiet over the past month, and so the Grigori's crew had taken on a few transport jobs. Shrugging, Soul hefted the crate he carried onto another, dusting off his hands.

"Sure," he said, heading back towards the airship's cargo hold. "Once we're done, you're free to go." BlackStar grinned victoriously, dropping the box and jogging to the captain's side. They both stopped to watch as Kidd tried (and failed) to lift one of the crates, Patti laughing at his attempts in the background.

"I don't get how that girl is so damn happy all the time," BlackStar grunted, continuing forward and easily grabbing the box that Kidd was struggling with. Kidd cut him a look and the blue haired man just smirked, Patti's laughter getting even louder.

"I don't think there's any power on the planet that can stop Patti from being cheerful," Soul said with a smirk, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, makes ya' wanna duct tape her mouth and throw her in the hold for a month," the weapons expert joked as he strolled by, a crate in one hand and a bag in the other.

"So," the twenty year old said with a smirk. "What'cha getting Tsubaki?" BlackStar continued, paying no attention to the suggestive eyebrow wiggle that Soul shot at him.

"Just a present. Her anniversary is coming up," he said with a shrug. "It'll be exactly three years since she joined the crew, and I thought we could celebrate." Soul nodded, slightly impressed.

"I'm surprised you remembered," Soul admitted, quirking his head to the side. "You can barely remember to put onyour _pants _in the morning-"

"THAT WAS ONCE!"

Soul laughed loudly, the two women that stood a few yards away turning their heads towards the two. "SOUL!" Maka yelled, green eyes narrowed in irritation. "Get back to work!"

"But I-!"

"Now," she growled. BlackStar just smirked as the grumbling man walked by, making a quick whiplash noise as the captain passed. The blunette turned his head and smiled cheekily at Tsubaki, the tall woman smiling back shyly.

"I sometimes wonder who's really the captain," Tsubaki said teasingly to the girl beside her, "You or him?" Maka smiled, watching the white haired man with caring eyes. '_She's so in love with him, it's almost sad to watch,' _the older woman thought with a small smile, bumping her hip against Maka's. The pilot grinned and bumped her back, both women laughing.

Tsubaki's laughter turned into a yelp when she felt two strong arms wrap around her waist, picking her up and spinning her around. "B-BlackStar!" she stuttered, cobalt eyes wide. BlackStar laughed loudly, plopping her back on the tarmac and pressing a sloppy kiss to the line of her jaw. Tsubaki's face erupted into a bright red blush and Maka just smiled, trotting over to Soul so that she could help him with the final crate.

"Hey babe," the blunette said huskily, shivers racing up and down the Japanese woman's spine. "I'm heading out to do some shopping, I'll be back later."

"Oh," Tsubaki said, twisting around in his grasp so that her hands were flat against his chest. "Do you want me to come with you?" She smiled when BlackStar kissed the tip of her nose, giggling slightly.

"No way! It'll ruin the surprise!" he said with a loud laugh, his mood contagious. Tsubaki worried slightly about the prospect of her blue haired lover going out by himself (last time he had done so, it had taken three days, most of their combined payroll and a very intricate plan involving a donkey to get him out of jail), but she nodded, not able to deny him anything.

"Okay, okay," she said with a smile, kissing him sweetly. "Just don't get arrested this time," the raven haired girl warned.

"Who? A big star like me?" BlackStar exclaimed, jerking his thumb towards his chest. "Never!" Tsubaki quirked a raven eyebrow and the blunette laughed nervously. "Alright, alright. I'll be back in two hours," he promised, and with one last kiss, jogged into the city.

"What's up with BlackStar?" Maka asked Soul as he dropped the last crate with a grunt. He stood taller, and stretched out his back with a groan.

"Dunno," he responded lazily, slumping slightly as his back cracked, one hand going into his pocket and the other arm snaking over Maka's shoulders. "He's off to get Tsubaki a present or something."

"That's kinda sweet," Maka said with a small smile, and Soul smiled down at her. One of the many things that he knew about Maka was that at heart, she was a hopeless romantic.

"What did he break?"

… Sometimes.

"It's the three year anniversary of when she joined the crew," he said with a shrug. "He remembered that, not me." Maka smiled up at him and pushed him good naturedly, laughing quietly.

"Whatever," she said with a smile. "Just go get the paperwork so we'll get paid for all this manual labor."

"You didn't do anything!"

"Didn't want to break a nail."

"You don't have any nails to break," Soul teased, walking back into the ship. Maka growled playfully, her lips pulling up in a saucy grin as she followed him back onto the ship. Soon the rest of the crew followed, leaving just one girl standing on the docks. Tsubaki looked out onto the city with a frown, her raven colored locks flying around her face in the breeze. For some reason, she wanted to run out into the city, grab BlackStar and lock him in her cabin. But he was already gone, so she would just have to wait for him like she always did and hope for the best.

**~O**

BlackStar looked at the shops that lined the street, his destination clear in his head. He was unusually focused, and he knew that Tsubaki would have been proud of him. The twenty year old's chest puffed up at the thought and he began to walk faster, searching desperately for his destination.

After about ten minutes, he reached the store front, slipping in the door with just the jingle of the bell alerting anyone to his presence.

Across the street, two figures stood in the shadows, watching the blunette through the window. "Is that him?" one of them asked quietly, leaning forward to look for the tell-tale star shaped tattoo on his shoulder. His arm was covered though, and the man growled.

"How many people on this planet have blue hair you idiot?" the other figure snapped, slapping him upside the head. "Of course it's him!"

"Well Mr. Smarty Pants," the first figure snapped back, "Why is he in a jewelry store? I thought he was supposed to be a brutal, heartless killer?"

"Damn idiot's probably gone soft. Probably has a collection of stuffed animals above his bed."

"Are you makin' fun of me again?"

When BlackStar walked out of the store again, his purchase tucked carefully in his pocket, the two men were still fighting. The blunette watched them with a confused expression, his head tilted to the side. One of the men shoved the other roughly, and the man fell into the light landing flat on his back. BlackStar's eyes widened, and he took a wide step back.

Curving around the outside of his left eye was a black "C", a smaller "A" tattoo just below the end of his eyebrow.

BlackStar took off like a rocket down the street, away from the Grigori. He barely heard the "HEY!" from the two men, but then again, he was barely sensing anything.

He had found him. How in the _hell _had Capone found him!

"STOP YOU BLUE HAIRED BAFFOON!" BlackStar just leaned forward, adding more length to each stride. He grabbed onto a tall light post and swung himself around the corner, giving himself more momentum. As the initial shock wore away, his senses came back to him in a rush and he began to make sense of his thoughts. '_What's that thing Maka always does when she's freakin' out? Oh yeah, she makes a list in her head,' _he thought with a scowl, dodging all the midday shoppers.

One, Capone had found him.

Two, he wanted him for something.

Three, under no circumstances, would BlackStar lead him Tsubaki.

The last thought took over his whole mind, driving him faster. '_Get them away from Tsubaki,_' was literally the only thing running through his mind as he ran, his breath coming in shallow gasps. It had been a while since he had run like this, and he was tiring. Slowly, but he was tiring.

He ducked into a side alley, hoping the men had lost him in the crowds, but as he looked back to check, he felt himself run into something. He fell to the ground with a grunt, holding his head. BlackStar looked up, expecting to see a wall, but instead came face to face with Al Capone.

Murderer.

Bootlegger.

His old boss.

_Crap._

"Hello BlackStar," the tall man said in a smooth voice, his black hair slicked back. He was thick, but not fat, and had the kind of black eyes that made you think that he was staring straight into your soul. "I thought I might drop by for a visit," he continued, looking down at the weapons expert like he was something that Capone found amusing.

"I think I would have appreciated a postcard more," BlackStar hissed, standing slowly with his feet spread apart. "What do you want?"

"I have a job for you," Capone said, walking around the agitated blunette like a shark circling its prey.

"I don't do that kind of crap anymore," he growled, "Or haven't you heard? I work for Shibusen now, and I'm happy with my job, thank you very much." Capone stopped for a moment, then smiled.

"Ah yes, the Airship Grigori. Captain is called Soul 'Eater' Evans and is piloted by a Miss Maka Albarn," BlackStar's eyes widened as he continued to prattle off names, though he managed to keep his expression the same when Capone said in a smug voice, "And Tsubaki Nakatsukasa, communications and cook. Is that right?" Capone turned to him with an evil smile, and BlackStar just narrowed his eyes. To let his anger get out of control would mean signing Tsubaki's death sentence, and he would never let that happen.

"… Yes," he snarled, his lip pulling back in distaste.

"Well, now that that's cleared up," Capone said with a clap of his hands. He turned and looked down at BlackStar with those cold black eyes, and BlackStar's ego screamed. "Like I said before, I've got a job for you."

"I already told you, I'm not taking any jobs!" BlackStar screamed, fists clenched at his sides.

"I'm not offering, I'm telling," the mob boss deadpanned, turning on the younger man and pinning him to the floor with just his eyes. "You are going to go into witch territory and find the chameleon witch. You will bring her to me, and then, and _only _then, can you leave with your life."

"Witch territory!" BlackStar took a wide step back, turquoise eyes wide. "Are you out of your _mind_!" Before the war, the witches had occupied most of Europe and South America, but afterwards, they had been confined to Old Russia and some of the surrounding countries. To trespass on witch land was considered suicide, and even Maka refused to fly in that air.

"Of course I am," Capone said with a shrug. "But I'm smart enough to get someone else to carry out my mad schemes."

"Use one of your other goonies then!" he yelled, swinging his arm out as if to encompass the many men that surrounded the two of them. "I have a life now! I'm not wasting it on one of your stupid ass plans!"

"Oh, I've tried," Capone said with a shrug, once again beginning to circle around the agitated twenty year old. "But none of them had your talent, your skills, your…" He stopped, resting his hands on the younger man's tense shoulders and leaning forward so that he could whisper in his ear, "_Background_."

_A small village hidden in the hills of Japan._

_A training school in the center of the village, the walls covered in blood._

_A man with bandages wrapped around his arms, stars in his turquoise eyes._

"… If I do this," BlackStar said in a quiet voice, his head bowed, "Will you leave the rest of my crew alone?"

"On my word," Capone said in an evil purr, his black eyes watching BlackStar as he thought. He didn't notice how BlackStar's hand went to his pocket, clutching Tsubaki's gift in his fist. He didn't notice how his hard turquoise eyes went soft for a moment, then hardened again with resolve. He couldn't hear the gears in the man's head begin to turn.

"… Fine, I'll do it." Capone stood straight, smiling smugly.

"I knew you'd come to think of things my way," he said calmly. "You'll leave first thing tomo-"

"I'll leave now." Capone looked up with a quirked eyebrow. BlackStar had already turned to walk away, Capone's goons splitting like the Red Sea in front of him. "I have people waiting for me, so this can't take long."

When BlackStar had walked far enough away, and was certain that no one had followed him, he turned and headed back towards the Grigori, keeping towards the shadows. When the large ship came into view, he stopped, watching as the crew worked to get everything moved inside. His eyes faithfully followed Tsubaki as she moved gracefully, a soft, worried, smile on her lips. Too soon, the crew began to file into the ship for the night, the sun already having set. BlackStar's heart clenched as his lover stood outside longer than anyone else, watching the city lights. He knew that she was looking for him.

And so with one final look, he turned on his heel and walked away, never to see her again.

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

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	10. On The Run

***IMPORTANT CONTEST INFO***

**I'm holding a contest during the BlackStar Arc! If you design a cover for the BlackStar Arc, colored and everything, you will receive a special, never before seen one-shot from AG, the first draft of how Maka and Soul met! It's totally different from the version I posted, so it should be super fun. The contest will last the entire BlackStar Arc, and if you would like more details, please PM me or message me on dA.**

**O~**

**BlackStar Arc: Chapter 2**

**On The Run**

**~O**

The bar was quiet, only a few people sitting at the dirty tables that were placed in a haphazard fashion around the room. Black Star couldn't help but think that Kidd would be having a heart attack right about now as he stepped inside. He shook all thoughts of his crew from his head as he sat at the bar, dumping his bag on the floor. "I'll have a glass of your strongest whiskey," the morose man said to the barkeep, resting his chin in his palm.

It had only been three days since BlackStar had left, and already his will power was slipping. Every nerve in his body was craving Tsubaki's touch, every woman on the street with black hair suddenly turned into the sweet girl he had left behind. '_It's worth it, she's safe,' _BlackStar thought with a sigh.

Damn. Since when was he so quiet? So morose? Isn't he the man who was supposed to surrpass God? He just felt like he had just switched to decaf (though he was drinking more coffee than ever). Being away from Tsubaki was having some seriously weird effects on his body.

"Girl troubles?" The blunette looked up, turquoise meeting dull brown as a young woman set a glass down in front of him. She smiled coyly at him and BlackStar fought the urge to gag.

"You could say that," BlackStar grumbled, grabbing the glass and bringing it to his lips, his eyes sliding shut as the whisky burned down his throat.

"Maybe I can help," the girl said, missing the look the taller man shot her as she sat down next to him, pulling subtly down on her blouse. Her limp brown hair fell stick straight, down to the curve of her back, but BlackStar only wanted to see long, thick raven locks.

"I don't think you can," he replied coolly, glaring at the girl over his drink.

"Well then," the girl said with a purr, leaning closer to the irate blunette, "Maybe I can help you forge-"

"Hey!" The girl jerked back, brown eyes wide. The barkeep stomped over, grabbing the girl by the back of her blouse. "I thought I told you to stop flirting with the customers!" he shouted, narrowing his eyes. "Now get back to work before I decide you're more trouble than you're worth!" The girl slinked off, grumbling under her breath and the barkeep shot BlackStar and apologetic look. "Sorry about that sir," he said with a quick nod. "Mary is a bit of a flirt."

BlackStar quirked his eyebrow in the universal sign of "No shit" before turning back towards his glass. "You need to reign her in before she gets hurt," he grumbled, taking another long pull from his glass. The barkeep continued on to take care of his other customers, and after he had left, BlackStar reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet covered box. He just sat there for a minute or two, twisting the box this way and that as he inspected it in the low lighting of the bar before flipping the lip up with a quick flick of his thumb.

The ring shined in the low lighting, the sapphire nestled between two diamonds glittering like the eyes of his lover. BlackStar set the box, with the ring still safely tucked in the fabric nest, on the bar, stroking the gem.

"It's a beautiful ring."

BlackStar's head shot up, turning to look at the man sitting next to him. The man had been silent the whole time BlackStar had been there, so he hadn't noticed him. Now that he did, he gave the man a quick once over (trust no one, trust nothing). The man was tall and lean, not overly muscular but clearly strong. His brown eyes weren't cull like Mary's had been, instead they looked alive, like the earth. His long straw blonde hair was pulled back with a cord of leather at the base of his neck, and BlackStar noticed that the man had a long sword tied to his waist. The blunette reached for his own weapon and narrowed his eyes.

"If you try and steal this ring, I promise you won't be walking out of this bar," he threatened, barring his teeth. It wasn't unusual for people to be carrying weapons in this part of the country, and barside robbery was a way of life for many. The other man gave a soft chuckle and shook his head, taking a quick sip of his drink.

"Who is it for?" he asked, watching as the wary man slowly released the death grip he had on his pistol. The two men stared each other down for a few moments, and BlackStar was vaguely aware of another pair of eyes watching the two. BlackStar was the first one to look away and physically flinched when he did, his ego taking a hit.

"My girlfriend," BlackStar said sadly, taking the ring out of its fabric cocoon and showing it to the blonde man. "It was supposed to be our three year anniversary in a few days, and I was going to propose."

"What happened?" BlackStar looked up at the third speaker, quirking an eyebrow. The voice definitely was female, but you couldn't tell under her thick, dark cloak she wore. A pair of burgundy eyes flashed under the hood and BlackStar wanted to stick his hand in a blender when he immediately thought of his friend and captain.

"My past caught up to me," was all BlackStar would say, staring at the ring in his hand. He carefully put the ring away in the silence that followed and turned towards the two with a smile. "I'm BlackStar," he said, offering his hand.

"Mifune," the taller man said, shaking his hand. "And this is Angela."

The girl pulled back her hood, shaking out her brown hair. Her long brown hair was styled in microbraid dreadlocks, with ribbons and feathers tied into her hair. She was young, maybe 15 or 16, and had a bright megawatt smile that made BlackStar think of Patti. She reached over Mifune's lap and shook BlackStar's hand as well, her small hand easily dwarfed by the older man's.

"So tell me about this girlfriend of yours!" Angela said with a devious smile, her burgundy eyes lighting up. BlackStar smiled, his turquoise eyes lighting up as he thought of all of the wonderful things he could say about Tsubaki. He opened his mouth to begin when the bells over the door jingled. BlackStar stiffened immediately, his ears trained on the sounds of two men heading towards the bar. His hand immediately went for his pistol, as his eyes trailed to the bottles that lined the back of the bar. Two men, both wearing suits, were reflected in the assorted liquor bottles. BlackStar silently pulled the pistol from his belt when he saw a "C" curved around one of the men's eye.

"Mifune," Angela said quietly, flipping up her hood up silently to hide her distinctive dreadlocks. BlackStar at the two with a quirked eyebrow as Mifune rested his hand on the hilt of his sword and cursed under his breath.

"How did they find us?" he hissed, his brown eyes narrowed.

"Wait, you?" BlackStar said, disbelief in his voice. "They're after me!"

"Now why on EARTH would they be after you?" Mifune hissed, pushing his glass back. BlackStar mimicked him, taking a long pull from his whisky first.

"Because they want me to kill a witch for them, and I said no." He saw Angela's eyes widen marginally, but had no time to think further on it when he felt a broad hand grip his shoulder.

"You know, you're making our lives a lot harder than it needs to be," the man said, sighing.

"You know, because that totally wasn't my objective," BlackStar grunted sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Witch territory is the other way."

"I got another lead." BlackStar turned around in his barchair, staring blankly at Capone's henchmen. '_Stay cool,' _he heard a voice that sounded eerily like Soul's say in his head. "I decided to follow that one instead of risking my butt in witch territory."

"Well, I guess that makes enough sense…" The man trailed off, looking over at Mifune. Angela had turned her head towards the bar, hiding her burgundy eyes and dreadlocks. "Who are they?"

"What, a man can't sit down for a quiet drink with a couple strangers?" BlackStar hissed.

"Strangers with weapons?"

"We're about ten miles west of witch territory, everyone carries a weapon," the blunette snapped, rolling his eyes. His lips pulled up in a faint smirk when he heard Angela snort under her hood, but his smirk faded immediately when the other henchman turned and stood over the younger girl.

"And who is this?"

"My niece," Mifune lied easily. "Please stay away from her, she's very shy." But the man ignored him, reaching out and spinning the 15 year old around in her barstool. He flipped her hood back and the reaction was instantaneous.

"YOU!" the man shouted, jerking his hand back from the girl's hood. She reached out and grabbed his wrist with both hands, standing quickly and flipping his arm behind his back. Mifune stood with eerie grace as he pulled his sword from his belt and slashed the back of the man's knees. There was a shout from the other patrons at the bar, and BlackStar saw the barkeep and that Mary girl usher the civilians towards the back.

The other henchman reached for his gun, but BlackStar jumped up, pulling his own pistol and firing one shot through the man's hand. He fell back with a yell, clutching at his hand.

"BASTARD!" the other henchman shouted from where he lay on the ground, pulling a gun from a holster on his belt. BlackStar turned and swung his arm down, clubbing the man with the handle of his gun. The man fell again with a thud, bleeding profusely from the temple.

With both men taken out, BlackStar grabbed Angela by the elbow, dragging her towards the door. "Come on!" he hissed, standing with his back against the wall. "There's gotta be more waiting outside, so we gotta go around the back-"

He stopped when he felt the sharp point of a blade barely a hairbreadth's away from his windpipe. He looked down the blade at the silent man, turquoise eyes meeting brown. "I'm going to have to ask that you let go of Angela," Mifune growled, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm trying to help you guys!" BlackStar sputtered, eyes wide.

"Mifune, stop it," Angela said, pouting at the older man.

"He's one of them!" he shouted.

"I _used_ to be one of them! And then I left, because frankly, I was sick of all the blood on my hands." BlackStar released Angela's arm, and knocked the man's blade aside. "I'm the weapons expert on the Airship Grigori, captained by Soul Eater Evans, _NOT _one of Capone's lackies." Both Angela's and Mifune's eyes widened.

"So you… Don't work for Capone?" Angela asked, her eyes lighting up.

"Hell no!" BlackStar growled. "He wants me to work for him again, but like I said earlier, I have a girl back at the ship, and I'm not going to risk my life for some psychopath. I've got a life."

"So what about your girl," Angela asked, "Does she know about this?"

"Tsubaki doesn't know, she can never know," BlackStar grunted, peeking a look around the corner. He cussed under his breath when he saw at least four other men. "Look, I would love to tell you my life story, but right now, we have four armed men about to storm this place."

"They won't find us," Angela said, smiling wickedly.

"Angie, you can't. Not for three people," Mifune warned, his face contorting in concern.

"Of course I can! You just gotta trust me!" Angela said with a quick laugh.

"But you need to keep your strength up, we can't do that if you tire yourself out."

"Why are you guys being so cryptic?" the blunette grumbled, annoyed that he was being ignored.

"Take off your glove and give me your hand," Angela instructed, turning to BlackStar and holding out her small, tan hand. The weapons expert quirked an eyebrow, but obeyed anyways. She grabbed his hand and looked towards Mifune expectantly. The blonde man grumbled under his breath, but still gave his hand over to the younger girl.

"Okay," Angela said, still smiling deviously, "When they storm in here, we head out the door right after them. Don't hold the door, don't touch anything, just slip through." Mifune and BlackStar both nodded, both a little put off by being ordered around by a teenager. The three stood against the wall, completely silent. The young girl had her eyes screwed closed, and BlackStar could just barely feel a tingle running up and down his arm that held Angela's hand.

The three froze up when the four men ran through the door, the door slamming completely open. Mifune dragged the two through the open door, never letting go of Angela's hand. They ran down the street, BlackStar grinning like an idiot. "That was incredible!" BlackStar said with a smile, finally letting go of the 15 year old's hand. "How did you do- WOAH!"

Both men reached forward as Angela fell forward, sweat lining her brow. They caught her under her arms, her head lolling to the side.

"Angela!" Mifune yelled, taking the smaller girl out of BlackStar's arms and scooping her up bridal style.

"What happened?"

"She wore herself down," he explained, heading off.

"W-Wait!" BlackStar yelled, running after him. "You're just gonna leave!"

"Yep."

"After what just happened?"

"_Especially_ after what just happened."

"Mifune," Angela rasped, her eyes fluttering open slightly, "Let him come with us, please." Mifune stopped, looking down at the small girl. She smiled up at him and reached out for BlackStar. She looped a finger through the strap of his goggles and smiled at him. "I trust him."

"You trust him?" Mifune asked, shocked.

"Yeah," Angela said with a smile, "I do."

BlackStar smiled back at the younger girl, reaching up and holding her hand in his. There was something in her burgundy eyes that made him think of Tsubaki, and that was enough for him.

"I think proper introductions are in order," the girl said with a smile. "I'm Angela Leon, the chameleon witch. This is my bodyguard Mifune the Samurai." BlackStar's eyes widened for a moment, then a large smirk spilt his face in half.

"I'm BlackStar Nakamura, and I think you just found yourself another bodyguard."

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

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	11. Lock Down

***IMPORTANT CONTEST INFO***

**I'm holding a contest during the BlackStar Arc! If you design a cover for the BlackStar Arc, colored and everything, you will receive a special, never before seen one-shot from AG, the first draft of how Maka and Soul met! It's totally different from the version I posted, so it should be super fun. The contest will last the entire BlackStar Arc, and if you would like more details, please PM me or message me on deviantART.**

**O~**

**BlackStar Arc: Chapter 3**

**Lock Down**

**(**_**WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS BLATENT ABUSE OF BACKSTORIES)**_

**~O**

"Are we there yet? Huh? Are we? I'm tired and my feet hurt! I wanna get a snack! Where are we supposed to be going? Huh? Huh? Huuuuuuuuh?"

Mifune grumbled under his breath, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Okay," he groaned as he stopped walking. "I think it's time we set up camp for the night. What do you think BlackStar?" He was met by silence, and when he turned to look for the blunette, was met with the sight of the younger man hitting his head repeatedly against a tree.

"Yes," BlackStar groaned. "Please. Anything to get her to _shut up_."

"But I don't wanna camp here!" Angela whined, sounding closer to four than fifteen.

"GET OVER IT!" BlackStar screamed, a vein visibly popping in his forehead.

The past four days that he had been traveling with the chameleon witch and her bodyguard had been some of the most stressful, annoying, and tiring days of his life.

And considering his previous occupations, that was saying something.

Angela was like the little sister he _never _wanted. She had this annoying way of always saying the wrong thing at the worst possible moment. BlackStar had already gotten shot at multiple times in the past four days, just because she accidently said something a bit too loudly. Her use of magic for the most trivial things also got them in trouble. BlackStar felt his admiration for Mifune, who dealt with her every day, grow with every second he had to spend with the teenager.

As the three set up the camp, BlackStar kept sneaking looks at the youngest member of their little group. Over her foul mood (she went through moods faster than Maka went through stain remover), she was whistling and singing as she worked. Her dreads were pulled back with a bright piece of pink ribbon, a few loose pieces dangling in front of her burgundy eyes. Her witch hat was perched happily on her head, helping with the unpacking (BlackStar still hadn't figured out how that hat worked).

"So BlackStar!" Angela said happily, turning towards the weapons expert with a smile. BlackStar replied with a grunt, turning and quirking an eyebrow to show that he was listening. "Are you having as much fun as I have been having these past four days?"

BlackStar stared at her with a deadpan expression, and without saying anything went back to unpacking. He was pulled away from his chores again when Angela skipped up to his side, beaming at him with a smile that reminded him eerily of Patti. "I'm really glad you decided to come with us," she said with a smile.

BlackStar tried not to smile back, he really did, but like he thought earlier, Angie was like the little sister he never wanted.

"I'm going to go get some firewood," Mifune said in his calm drawl, nodding once at BlackStar and giving Angela a quick hug before vanishing into the woods.

"You know, there's something I've been wanting to ask you Angie," BlackStar said as they watched the tall samurai walk away. "How did you two even meet? You seem more like father and daughter than witch and guard."

Angela smiled serenely and motioned for BlackStar to sit at the empty fire pit with her, wrapping a blanket around her thin shoulders. "You may not know this, but my home country is run by a council of ten witches and the head witch. My mother was one of the ten, until she was killed by another witch who wanted to take her place."

"I'm so sorry," BlackStar said sadly, thinking of his own mother that he had also lost at a young age.

"I can't remember her very well, but I know she didn't deserve to die," Angela grumbled, her face pinching up in anger and pain. "Places on the council are typically passed from mother to daughter, so I should have been the one to take over for her, but I was too young. The witch who killed my mother knew that when I got older, I would be given my mother's chair. So she did the one thing she could." Angela's voice broke a bit, but her burgundy eyes were cold as she looked up at BlackStar. "She tried to have me killed."

"I'm sorry, but how does this relate to you meeting Mifune?" BlackStar asked, a little afraid of interrupting her story. The fifteen year old cut the blunette a look and the man quickly shut up.

"She hired a gang of men to take me out, paid them a lot of money to do it. And that's where I met Mifune. He was one of the men they sent to kill me, but when he saw that I was just a little girl, he saved me. He's been with me ever since!" she finished with a smile, beaming at BlackStar.

"So why is Capone after you now?" BlackStar asked, watching as Mifune came back to the camp with arms full of firewood.

"Well, the age in which a daughter can take over for her mother on the council is sixteen, and my birthday is coming up in a few weeks, so the witch is trying to take me out of the picture before I can come back and report her," she said with a shrug, watching as Mifune began to build up the fire.

"What about you BlackStar?" Angela asked sweetly, smiling widely at him. BlackStar winced slightly and he internally sighed in relief when Mifune snapped "Angela! Leave the man alone! His business is his business."

"But Mifune-!"

"No 'but's' Angela, it's time for you to go to bed anyways." BlackStar smiled when Angela began to whine again, and Mifune simply handed her a pair of pajamas. She walked off to change with a huff, glaring over her shoulder at the two older men.

"Well, that's my cue to go to bed as well I guess," BlackStar said with a yawn, lying back on his pallet. Mifune huffed out a good night and soon BlackStar was asleep, his breathing deep and low.

**O~**

Maka grumbled as she woke up, sleep trying its best to keep her in bed. She looked at her bedside clock and whined, throwing her arm over her eyes. '_What in the world woke me up at 4 in the morning?' _she thought with a huff, rolling onto her side to try and go back to sleep.

"Maka-chan~."

Oh yeah, that's what woke her up.

"What is it Blair?" Maka whined, rolling onto her back and pushing herself up so that she was resting on her hands. The purple feline looked up at the mechanic with sad golden eyes.

"She still hasn't come in yet," she said sadly. Maka was instantly awake, and she frowned. Blair didn't need to tell her who 'she' was.

Getting up with a sigh, Maka waddled over to her closet and quickly threw on a pair of pants and a long sleeved jacket. The mornings here were chilly, and she didn't want to catch a cold. She turned to walk away, but at the last second turned back and grabbed a blanket for her friend.

Blair trotted after the blonde as she wandered the halls of the airship, heading towards the bay doors. She didn't run into any of the other crew members – who else would be up at this hour anyways – and when she pressed the button down, Maka sighed wearily.

She _was _still out there.

Tsubaki's black hair was waving loose in the morning breeze, and Maka noted with a frown that she was shaking. The blonde pilot walked towards her friend silently, her bare toes frozen on contact with the cold asphalt. She quietly got onto her knees and draped the blanket around Tsubaki's shaking form. The Japanese woman barely noticed.

"Tsubaki, you can't stay out here all the time," Maka said sadly, wrapping her arms around the woman.

"Yeah," Blair meowed sadly, curling up in Tsubaki's lap in an attempt to warm the woman up. "You're gonna get sick."

"He said he'd be right back," was all Tsubaki said, and both Maka and Blair winced.

BlackStar hadn't come back from his shopping adventure yet, and the crew was fearing the worse after ten days. Soul had taken Kidd, Patti, and Liz on a man hunt the morning after he disappeared, scouring the city for their blue haired friend while Maka and Blair tried to calm the panicking Tsubaki. After the third day, they stopped going out into the city, disheartened. Every night, Tsubaki would sit out on the tarmac and wait for her lover, tears in her eyes.

"You know BlackStar," Maka said sadly, pulling her older friend closer. "He's probably fine. I bet he saw a guy with a shiny gun and accidentally followed him onto a passenger ship. He'll be on his way home right no-"

"Don't try and make me feel better!" Tsubaki snapped, her hard cobalt eyes making Maka wince. "He left! Disappeared! Left me behind for some better adventure!" The tears started to roll again and Maka could only pull her closer.

"I'm sure he had a good reason," Maka said comfortingly. "I mean, the boy was crazy about you! Did you know that when he left, he was going to buy a gift for you?" Tsubaki looked up at the blonde from where her head was resting on Maka's shoulder.

"R-really?" she sniffed. Maka nodded once, smiling.

"Out of all of us, he was admittedly the only one who remembered the exact date that you joined the crew. Someone like that doesn't just leave. He had to have had a good reason." Tsubaki nodded, slightly calmed, and Maka wasn't surprised at all when a few minutes later, the Japanese woman fell asleep against her shoulder. "He had to," she whispered to herself, watching the skyline as if BlackStar would magically appear. With a small sigh, she rested her head against Tsubaki's and fell asleep as the sun began to climb over the edge of the tarmac.

When she woke back up, the sun was high in the sky and Maka could feel a pair of familiar eyes on her back. She looked back and nodded at Soul once, unable to hide her frown. He walked over and looked at the still sleeping Tsubaki, quirking his eyebrow. Maka just sighed and motioned for him to pick her up. Soul nodded and easily scooped the woman up, managing to keep Blair in Tsubaki's lap.

Maka marveled slightly over how easily she and her captain could converse without words. As the small group headed back into the ship, Tsubaki sighed happily in her sleep, nuzzling closer to Soul's chest. Maka saw her mouth her lover's name and she wanted to cry for the sweet woman.

After depositing the Japanese woman in her bunk, Soul rejoined Maka in the hallway. The blonde yawned and Soul draped an arm around her shoulder, pulling the still sleepy woman closer to him. "What time is it?" Maka mumbled, nuzzling her cheek against the albino's chest.

"Almost seven," he replied easily, resting his chin in her ash blonde hair. "Was she out there the whole time?" Maka only nodded in response, and Soul sighed wearily.

"If BlackStar comes back," Maka started, looking up at Soul, "Will you be mad if I kill him?"

"Only because you got to him first," he growled dangerously. Maka chuckled and buried her face back in his chest. The two were silent for a few minutes and Soul had just begun to think that Maka had mastered the art of falling asleep while standing when he felt her lips move against his chest.

"What was that?" he asked, letting up a bit on his grip so Maka could pull away. Maka fisted both of her hands on his chest, just staring at the small patch of his tan skin she could see for a few moments before looking up at him with wide green eyes.

"You'll never leave me right?" she asked quietly, looking back at her hands. Soul watched her for a few moments before sighing wearily and pulling her closer to him. He easily buried his face in her soft hair, inhaling her scent before pressing his cracked lips to the crown of her head.

"Never," he said firmly, tightening his grip on her slightly. Maka smiled against his chest and pressed her lips to the fabric over his heart.

"Good," she breathed. She pulled away from Soul with a sigh and beamed up at him. "Come on, I want to make Tsubaki something really nice for breakfast!" she said happily, the serious mood disappearing as Soul bathed in the sound of her musical laughter.

"Oh yeah, poison the poor woman," Soul jibed, smirking widely as he nudged Maka with his hip. "That'll cheer her up!"

Maka shoved him with a growl and Soul just laughed. "Oh please, you know I'm a good cook _Soul,_" she growled.

"Bowls of cereal don't count- YEEP!" Soul yelped in a very unmanly fashion as Maka's tiny, but powerful, fist flew past his head. He turned and ran for the kitchen with a laugh, Maka swearing a blue streak as she chased after him.

**~O**

"Your job is to take out the youngest daughter of the Nakatsukasa clan's head," the man said, his thick hand clutching the teen's shoulder. The blue haired boy smiled eerily and with a nod, stood silently and disappeared out the door.

He turned and suddenly was in a large, ornate, hallway with traditional Japanese paintings lining the walls. He stalked down the hall silently, floating as if on the breeze. He reached the doorway marked with a carving of a camellia blossom and easily pushed it open. The door was well oiled, and he laughed internally at their foolishness. They were just making his job that much easier.

He stepped into the room and his star-filled eyes immediately latched onto the tiny girl kneeling in the corner. Her dark hair was styled into a simple plait down her back, and her kimono was of the purest white and gold.

"So you came." He stopped were he stood, the dagger half-pulled from its sheath. The girl turned slightly, her eyes hidden beneath obsidian bangs. "You took a lot longer than I thought you would."

He bristled slightly at the comment, pulling his scarf down from where it lay across his nose and mouth. "I am the Great Assassin, the one who will surpass the gods. Nobody dares to call me slow," he growled, his voice higher than one would expect. But then again, he was still just a child, not much older than the girl in front of him.

"Oh come on BlackStar," the girl said with a laugh, surprising the boy. "You want to surpass the gods? You run from mortals, hide from their mortal guns. A god? Ha!" The girl turned all the way around, and BlackStar's eyes widened. "You're just as mortal as the rest of us," Tsubaki finished, standing at her full height, now a young woman. She looked just like she did when BlackStar first met her in Scotland, nursing a glass of water shyly and begging anyone for a job.

"Tsubaki, I don't want to hurt you," BlackStar pleaded, now back in his typical garb from the Grigori. He was covered in the familiar smell of grease and metal, but still held the shining dagger in his hand. Tsubaki stepped forward and brushed her fingertips across his cheek. He practically moaned at the feel of her skin across his, but she retracted her hand quickly, blood dripping off her fingertips. BlackStar noticed that he was covered in the sticky red liquid and he shivered.

"That's why you left," Tsubaki said sadly. "To protect me. But I don't know that." BlackStar jerked his head up watching the beautiful woman with star-filled eyes. "Didn't you ever think about how much it would hurt me when you left?"

"I can't let Capone find you," BlackStar urged, trying to make her understand. "He would kill you in a heartbeat."

"We could have taken him on together," Tsubaki said sadly, watching the blood drip off her fingers. "Soul and Maka would've helped. Kidd, Patti, and Liz too. But instead you run from us. Run from your family again."

BlackStar tensed up suddenly, feeling a heavy hand on his shoulder again. He spun around quickly, coming face to face with a pair of familiar pair of star-filled turquoise eyes. He took a long step back from his father, his wide eyes noticing the body of a beautiful woman with turquoise hair lying broken and bleeding on the floor. BlackStar knew she was dead, his mother was always dead.

"My son can't run away from a fight," WhiteStar sneered, circling his son as Capone had done days ago. "You're a disappointment to the Star clan. Just like your pathetic mother." BlackStar's eyes darted to his mother's broken body and he wanted to cry. Which was weird, because he hadn't cried since he was 12.

"Come back, please," Tsubaki pleaded, holding her hands out towards the blunette. BlackStar reached out towards her, his fingertips just brushing against hers when her head fell back and she fell to the floor with a yell. He followed her to the floor, clutching Tsubaki to his chest. She was bleeding, heavily. Blood dripped out of her eyes and mouth, down her pale cheeks and gathering in the dip of her collar bone. She just kept screaming, her cobalt eyes wide.

"Tsubaki? TSUBAKI!" BlackStar screamed as his eyes grew larger. Suddenly, he was back at his old home in the Star clan's village. He looked down at himself and noticed that he looked as he did when he had been six. He looked back up when he heard the loud sound of bones snapping. His eyes widened as he watched the lifeless body of a young woman hit the floor.

This scene was familiar to BlackStar, and no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't look away. But something was different. The woman's hair wasn't a light indigo like his mother's was, instead it was as black as onyx. BlackStar's heart dropped when a foot kicked the woman's limp body and her lifeless cobalt eyes fell on BlackStar. His eyes followed the foot up the man's body and he felt bile rise up his throat when his eyes locked with a familiar pair of turquoise ones.

His older self smiled eerily, blue hair greasy and matted on his scalp. "This is what you ran from, isn't it?" he sneered, oozing towards the younger version of himself. "Forget Capone, you're afraid of becoming like your father." He kneeled down and stared himself in the eyes. "_Like me."_

**O~**

BlackStar shot up with a yell, his eyes wide and bloodshot. His eyes darted around the clearing he was in and breathed in relief when he saw both Angela and Mifune still sleeping next to him. He wiped the sweat from his brow and rested his head in his hands. The blunette was so out of it that he didn't notice as the small girl next to him sat up and watched him as he tried to catch his breath.

Angela crawled over and gently placed a hand on BlackStar's shoulder, watching him with sad burgundy eyes. "BlackStar?" she asked quietly, shaking his shoulder slightly.

BlackStar looked up and smiled tiredly at her. "Hey," he responded, sighing shakily. "Sorry, did I wake you up?"

"No," Angela lied, sitting next to BlackStar with a sigh. "I just wanted a drink. Good thing I got up though, it looked like you were having a nightmare."

BlackStar was silent, looking away from the fifteen year old to stare at the forest floor. "I don't want to talk about it," he gruffed out. Angela just watched him for a few seconds before scooting closer and poking his cheek. He grunted in response and turned to look at her.

"You know what makes me feel better after I've had a nightmare?" she asked, smiling at the older blunette. BlackStar just quirked his eyebrow and watched as the chameleon witch rolled onto her knees.

"A kiss," she said, pressing her lips to BlackStar's cheek in a sisterly gesture, "And a hug!" She wrapped her arms tightly around BlackStar's shoulders, nuzzling his shoulder. BlackStar tensed up slightly, then relaxed, pulling the younger girl into his arms. He buried his face in the crook of her neck and could feel the comfort rolling off of her like waves. It had been forever since he had just hugged somebody, and the feeling of her tiny body wrapped around his own in a display of sisterly love made his heart swell.

Angela smiled sadly and began to run her small hand up and down BlackStar's back when she felt warm water hit her shoulder. She remained silent, letting BlackStar cry into her tan skin.

BlackStar didn't know where the tears came from, maybe the stress, maybe the nightmare, hell, maybe it was just the fact that this witch, this tiny, _incredible, _little girl – who was a virtual stranger to him- was being so kind to him in his darkest hour. But suddenly the dams just broke and he found himself crying like a baby.

Admittedly a very tan, muscular baby, but still a baby.

He was silent as he let the tears loose, but Angela could feel his chest jerk up and down with his rough breaths. In that moment, she swore to herself, and to BlackStar, that she would get him home safe and sound. She looked up to the stars and smiled as she felt her tiny soul reach forward and mark the man crying in her arms.

She had officially given him her word, the word of a witch. A promise that could never be broken, not even in death.

Mifune was going to be _pissed. _

**~O**

Soul walked down the corridor, lost in thought. After two hours of searching the kitchen for something edible, Maka had managed to pull together a surprisingly good breakfast. He had been kidding when he said she was a bad cook. Back in New Death Haven, Maka had actually come over and cooked for him whenever his parents left him alone in the house, literally kicking all the maids out so they could just sit around and stuff their faces with junk food as they listened to radio shows all night.

As he came near Tsubaki's cabin, he remembered why Maka had kicked him out of the warm kitchen. He was tasked with bringing Tsubaki out from her cave and back into society again.

He knocked on the metal door warily, listening for a sound that indicated that she was in fact awake.

"Come in," a small voice said, and Soul swung the door open with a barely audible hiss. He dropped down into the room with ease, landing in a crouch while keeping his hands in his pockets.

Yes, he was _that _cool.

"Hey, Maka made breakfast," Soul said as he straightened out of his crouch. "You want any?" He looked at Tsubaki, _really _looked at her, and decided that if BlackStar ever came back, he would die in the most painful way possible.

The Japanese woman was extremely pale, and the dark circles under her eyes made her look like she had either been punched in the face multiple times or went overboard with the eyeliner. She was wearing one of BlackStar's old work shirts and a simple brown skirt, and a piece of cording cinching the oversized shirt around her tiny waist. She looked physically ill and Soul felt like he was about to be. He needed to be gentle, calm. '_Try and make her feel better,_' he thought, opening his mouth.

"Wow, you look like crap."

Yikes. He was going to be feeling that in the morning, in the form of a tiny blonde with a monkey wrench. "Uh, I didn't mean-" he stuttered, trying to amend the situation before word got to Maka.

"It's fine," Tsubaki sighed, pulling her hair so that it lay across one shoulder. She fingered the split ends instead of looking up at Soul. The captain sighed tiredly and took a step closer to the slightly older woman.

"Really, Tsubaki," Soul said, concern laced in his voice, "You look sick. You're scaring me." The Japanese woman looked up at him and smiled, touched by his concern.

She opened her mouth to reply when a loud knocking noise filled the small room. Both aeronauts looked towards the hatch, wondering who it could be. "Come in!" Tsubaki yelled, curiosity taking over at last.

They couldn't see it, but they heard the door swing open. A few seconds went by with nothing happening when suddenly, a small bundle was dropped through the hatch and onto the floor with a loud bang.

And then the bundle moaned.

"MAKA!" Soul and Tsubaki screamed in unison, running towards the girl that lay in a heap on the floor. They both stopped when a man dropped down in front of her, his face hidden by the brim of his fedora.

"Hey there," the man said, a smirk in his voice. He looked up and the first thing Soul noticed was the tattoo of a "C" wrapped around the man's eyes. "You wouldn't happen to know a fella named BlackStar, would you?"

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

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	12. The Star That Fell From Heaven

***IMPORTANT CONTEST INFO***

**I'm holding a contest during the BlackStar Arc! If you design a cover for the BlackStar Arc, colored and everything, you will receive a special, never before seen one-shot from AG, the first draft of how Maka and Soul met! It's totally different from the version I posted, so it should be super fun. The contest will last the entire BlackStar Arc, and if you would like more details, please PM me or message me on dA.**

**~O**

**BlackStar Arc: Chapter 4**

**The Star That Fell From Heaven**

**O~**

More men filed into the room, and Tsubaki had to physically hold Soul back from launching himself at their throats in rage. Tsubaki blanched when she noticed that Kidd and both Thompson sisters were being dragged in along with the men, all of their faces contorting in anger and grief when they saw Maka laying in a painful heap on the floor. One man had a bag thrown over his shoulder like a potato sack, and judging how it kept growling and thrashing, she assumed that Blair wasn't enjoying her trip.

Once the five aeronauts (and one cat) were corralled into one corner, Soul still chomping at the bit, a tall, thick man descended the ladder. He looked down at the young blonde disdainfully and kicked her roughly in the side. Soul roared in rage, Tsubaki losing her grip before Kidd and Patti came to help her.

"Get up girl," the man sneered, reaching down and pulling the whimpering girl by the hair. Maka cried out in pain and clutched at her captor's hand, trying to relive the pressure off her sensitive scalp. "Out of all the people on this ratty ship, of course it's one of the smallest that gives us the most problems," he said with a frown, shaking her painfully.

When he began to walk towards the rest of the crew, Soul noticed the man had a painful looking limp, and the full meaning of his words sunk in. "So how many of your guys did she manage to take out before you got her?" he asked snidely, feeling pride blossom in his chest.

"None of your business brat!"

"Four," one of the henchmen added helpfully, clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Soul smirked widely, and a few of the men backed away at the sight of his sharp teeth.

"That's my girl," he said proudly. "Now please," Soul's voice changed suddenly, slipping into the low growl of his "captain voice". "Who the hell are you and what the fuck are you doing on my ship?"

The tall man smiled, and held out the hand that wasn't currently ripping Maka's hair out. "Al Capone," he said with a sneer, enjoying the sounds of the crew's shock. "Oh don't worry," he continued, dropping his hand when it was evident that no one was going to shake it like a polite gentleman, "I'm not here for you."

"Could've fooled me," Soul growled, tugging at his arm (which was being held in one of Patti's deathgrips).

"I'm here for my assassin." He continued as if Soul had never spoken, and the twenty year old bristled at the thought of being ignored.

"What are you talking about?" Patti growled, still holding Soul back. "We don't know any assassins!"

"Much less let them on our ship," Kidd finished, grunting as Soul once again tried to reach his pilot.

"Oh, but you have," Capone said, relishing in his words. "In fact, you welcomed him with open arms. Let him handle dangerous machinery. Let him into your beds even." At this point, Soul's expression was slowly beginning to shift from rage to disbelief.

"No," he gasped out, realization hitting him straight in the gut.

"Ah!" Capone said happily, "He gets it! A prize for the man in the front!" With that, he practically threw Maka at him, the nineteen year old only managing to stumble forward a few steps before she began to fall to the ground. Soul ripped out of the three aeronauts' grasps, his arms effortlessly catching the small woman. He had to drop down onto his knees in order to catch her in time, but when he did, he didn't hesitate to clutch her as close to him as humanly possible.

"Soul?" Maka said meekly, her eyes fluttering open for the shortest second before she relaxed into his arms. "We have to stop meeting like this," she joked weakly, and Soul laughed quietly.

"I second that," he murmured into her temple as he readjusted her so that her head was resting on his shoulder.

"How sweet," Capone said, smiling crazily down at the two friends. Soul shifted so that Maka was behind him and hissed at the mobster. "I hate to break up this tender moment, but I'm just here to get my assassin back.

"There is no assassin on this ship!" Tsubaki shouted, her cobalt eyes narrowed to slits. "You're mad-"

"She's right, there's no assassin on board," Soul interrupted, his bangs hiding his face. When he looked up, there was a sad look in his eyes and Tsubaki felt her stomach hit the floor. "He left ten days ago, we haven't heard from him since."

He could practically feel the silence rolling off his crew, then the horror, shock, and pain. Soul winced as Tsubaki fell to her knees, her breath hitching.

"Well, I guess my boys' secret is out," Capone said, and Soul growled at the smile he could hear in the mobster's voice. "Oh, this is good. This is very very good. You know, I just _hate _being the bearer of bad news-"

"Get out," Soul snarled, turning his crimson glare up at the man. Capone smiled evilly, stepping closer to the captain.

"But things are just starting to get good," he whispered.

"GET OUT!" The captain's roar bounced off the walls, making all of Capone's men cringe. The larger man's smile turned down, and he stood at his full height.

"Fine," he said coolly. "Since you're clearly not a part of BlackStar and my business, I will show you mercy. But believe me when I say that if my boy doesn't show up in 48 hours, I will begin to kill off your crew. One. By. One." the dark haired male reached forward, tugging roughly on one of Maka's pigtails before Soul hit him away with a growl. "I think I'll start with her," he said with a dark smile, and only the knowledge that Maka was moaning in pain in his arms kept the albino man from launching at the mob bosses' throat.

Capone turned towards some of his own men and shouted "Which one of you can fly this piece of junk?"

"J-junk?" Soul looked down as Maka protested weakly, aiming a weak glare at the man. "She a-ain't junk!" She began to push off the floor, her arms shaking with the effort, and Soul quickly pulled her closer.

"Shhh," he said calmingly, "Don't worry about them. Just stay still."

"B-but did you hear what he called my ship?" Maka asked, flopping into the captain's arms. "The G-grigori ain't junk!"

"Anyone?" Capone asked, ignoring the still ranting Maka. "Come on, someone has to know how to fly a Resonance."

"I can, sir," one of Capone's men said, stepping forward.

"Good." Capone turned and sneered at the shell shocked crew. "Let's go reunite this poor group of fools with their good friend, shall we?"

**~O**

"Ouch!" Soul winced as Maka's cry of pain rang out in the small cabin. The blonde glared at Kidd as he continued to poke at her head. "I haven't fallen over dead in the past 2 hours Kidd," she growled, "I think I'm fine."

Kidd just pursed his lips and continued to prod at the sensitive bump on the back of her head. After Capone had left the cabin, he had immediately seen to Maka. She wasn't in _too _much pain, thank god, but he was worried about the extent of her injury. Though now that she had regained her senses, she was being unnecessarily stubborn about it.

Maka turned away from Kidd and looked up at Soul with those big green eyes of hers, her lower lip poking out in a face Soul could never resist. "Sooooooooul," she whined, sounding eerily like she was 14 again (a bad year for both of them, because suddenly puberty hit, and it hit hard), "Tell the mean doctor I'm okay now."

"Kidd, is she okay?" Soul asked, quickly looking away from the pilot before he gave in to those bright eyes.

"She has a small concussion," Kidd said, fiddling with the glasses perched on the bridge of his nose.

"Well no duh," Maka huffed, leaning back on her hands. "I got hit in the back of the head with a lead pipe."

"And," Soul prompted, ignoring Maka's huff.

"She should be fine in a few more hours," the doctor said with a shrug. The albino man sighed in relief, turning back to Maka with a small smile. She gave a weary smile back and Soul thought he would melt. Until Maka's smile dropped off her face as her eyes fell on Tsubaki.

The Japanese woman was curled up in Liz and Blair's arms, her head resting on Liz's shoulder. Her eyes were rimmed with red, even though she had stopped crying half an hour ago. Now she just looked dead inside, like someone had scooped out her soul and left an empty shell behind.

Maka stood carefully, a bit unsteady on her feet, and walked over to Tsubaki. She sat down next to the older woman and placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. Tsubaki looked up at her and gave a small sob, lunging forward into Maka's waiting arms. She began to cry again, clutching at Maka's loose-fitting shirt.

"W-why would he lie to me l-like that!" she wailed, fat tears rolling down her cheeks. "I-I just don't understand!"

"I can't believe it," Patti whispered, eyes downcast. "Our BlackStar, an assassin."

"What difference does it make?" Liz asked, blue eyes hard. "We've all killed people before, BlackStar isn't any different. We're all just as tainted as the next person." The crew was silent, only Tsubaki's soft sniffles making any noise.

"I don't care about what he did," Tsubaki blurted suddenly, looking up at Liz. "I just care that he didn't tell me."

"Maybe he was worried about what you would think?" the blonde suggested, shrugging in the universal sign for "_Guys are confusing_."

"It doesn't matter now," Maka snapped, glaring at the older girl. "What matters is that we have to get back the Grigori and help BlackStar out." The rest of the crew nodded, voicing their approval. The young pilot turned back to Tsubaki and gripped her shoulders lightly. "Do you know if BlackStar has any weapons stashed in here?" she asked, green eyes serious.

Tsubaki simply quirked her eyebrow and said in a deadpan voice, "What do you think?"

"Okay, that was a stupid question, I'll give you that," grumbled Maka, scratching her cheek in embarrassment. Tsubaki gave the younger girl a quick smile before standing, brushing her remaining tears away, and turning towards the rest of her crew.

"There should be enough in here for all of us," she mumbled, looking at each crew member for a few seconds.

"Should be?" Kidd asked, quirking a black brow. Tsubaki shrugged.

"There could be extra," she said simply. The Japanese woman walked over to one wall that was covered with a large cloth and ripped it back with a flourish. She smiled when her friends all gasped, staring at the assortment of weapons on the wall. "Yup," she said, mainly to herself, "Definitely extra."

As the rest of the crew started to scramble for weapons, Liz and Patti fighting over the biggest sniper rifle, Maka waddled over to Soul. She was very lightheaded and felt sick, but she wasn't about to let Soul or anyone know that. "Alright," she said, crossing her arms as she stood next to the silent captain, "Spill it."

"What?"

"You know something," Maka said plainly, ignoring Soul's questioning look. "Something you're not telling us. I can tell."

Soul stared at the pilot for a few moments, crimson eyes wide before he sighed, flopping onto the bed. Maka sat next to him, quirking her head so that she could see him better. "I…" Soul sighed again, running his hands through his hair, "We went out for drinks about two years ago, BlackStar and I. BlackStar was gripping about something, so I was trying to get him as drunk as possible, if only to get him to shut up. All of a sudden, he started wailing about how Tsubaki would hate him if she ever found out, how he was an awful person, so on so forth. I was really freaked out, so I decided to get him back to the ship before he could cause a scene. About halfway there, BlackStar turned to me and said 'I can still hear them scream you know. Can still feel the weight of the gold in my palm.'"

Soul turned towards Maka with sad red eyes, his shoulders drooping. "Until now, I never understood what he meant. I thought it was just him babbling on about nonsense."

Maka leaned closer, her shoulder bumping against his arm comfortingly as they watched the crew begin to load their weapons. There was a bit of turbulence and the pilot growled, having half a mind to snatch the large machine rifle from Patti's grasp and killing the idiot who was _attempting _to fly her ship. "Damn idiot's gonna crash us all," she grumbled, and Soul chuckled, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer. He was thankful for Maka's ability to put him in a good mood, even if it was at her own expense.

"I'd rather have some idiot flying than you flying all alone with those dumbasses," Soul whispered against the shell of her ear, making Maka shiver and roll her eyes simultaneously.

"Alright," Kidd boomed suddenly, shaking the two friends out of their moment. "We're going to blow the lock and storm up to the bridge. Tsubaki and Soul, you take point-" Kidd suddenly cut off, the look Soul was giving him sending tendrils of fear around his soul.

"Captain," Soul growled, pointing at himself, "Doctor," he pointed at Kidd. "Now remind me, which one of us is in charge of battle plans?"

Kidd immediately shut up, taking a step backwards. Soul stood easily, commanding everyone's attention like the natural born leader that he was. "We're going to have to wait to take the Grigori back," he said simply, ignoring his crew's protests. Maka was silent, already understanding his plan. "If we try to now, there are too many ways for this to go wrong and end with all of us in the middle of a huge wreckage at the bottom of a ravine."

"Nice mental image," Blair said simply, and the albino captain shrugged.

"Crude, but effective. Not to mention, they're taking us to BlackStar."The crew's protests died instantly, all eyes on Tsubaki. Her cobalt eyes were wide, and her lower lip was trembling slightly. She clamped her lips into a thin line and nodded for her captain to continue. "Once we land," Soul trailed off, walking to the wall of weapons with leisurely, measured steps. He grabbed a large shotgun, loaded in a few rounds, and cocked it easily, fully aware of his silent crew watching him. "Once we land," he repeated, turning towards his friends with a devilish smirk, "We'll take our ship back, and find that idiot so that we can drag his stupid ass home."

The crew cheered, clearly pleased with the plan, and Maka simply rolled her eyes. '_What a drama queen,' _she thought, her lips quirking up as Soul tossed her a pistol across the cabin. She caught it easily, and then motioned to Soul's left. "Toss me that," she said simply, and Soul quirked his head, not sure what she meant thanks to her vague comment.

With a sigh, she joined him at the wall, and grabbed the object she was looking for. She turned back to Soul and his eyes lit up when she slip the rapier and its sheath into her belt. "I didn't know you still remembered how to use one of those," he teased, amused by the awed look from Kidd.

Maka shrugged, saying simply, "After nearly eleven years of training, it's kind of hard to forget."

As the rest of the crew began to discuss their plans (and Kidd demanded that once this ordeal was over, Maka fight him with her rapier, since, and I quote, "It's been too long since I've had a proper fight"), Tsubaki smiled. The knowledge that they were going to get BlackStar back filled her up, warming her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes.

The first thing she would do to him was smack him across the face.

But after that, she would forgive him for every sin he had ever committed, because to her, he was perfect, godly even, despite the blood that coated his hands.

**O~**

It was the familiar roar of an airship engine that woke BlackStar up that early morning. It had been two days since his nightmare, and his dreams had been surprisingly nice since. Things were finally beginning to calm down, Capone's men having disappeared for some odd reason. BlackStar smiled, knowing that he could walk down the street now without fear of being shot at (always a nice feeling).

The roar got louder, and BlackStar looked up, remembering what had woke him up. A small gray airship flew overhead, and BlackStar was almost physically sick.

The Grigori.

What the hell was it doing this far from its planned route?

"That's it, isn't it?" The blunette's head turned, realizing that the Grigori's loud purr hadn't woken just him up. "The Grigori," Angela clarified, "That's it?"

"Yeah," he answered, pushing himself up so that he was standing. "But it shouldn't be all the way out here, we never fly this far out. Something's wrong."

"Or maybe they're just looking for you," the witch suggested, holding out her hand so that he could help her up. As he pulled her up, he noticed Mifune walk into their small camp from the forest, a armful of firewood clutched to his chest.

"No, that's not it," he said with a shake of his head. "Protocol would have them alert people in this region so that they could search here. Shibusen ships aren't supposed to fly off their routes like this, it could screw the whole system over." He reached for his over shirt, throwing it on and slipping one of his leather suspenders up (the other one never fit, so he just didn't bother). "I'm gonna go check it out," he stated, fastening his goggles securely around his head next.

"No."

BlackStar stopped, turning towards the blonde man with narrowed eyes. "Excuse me?" he hissed, a blue eyebrow raising in question.

"I said no," was Mifune's simple answer. BlackStar felt anger begin to boil up in his chest, and turned on his heel, walking until he was standing directly in front of the taller man, ignoring Angie's small protest of "Guys."

"Who said you're the boss of me?" the blunette growled, eyes narrowed. The only people who could order him around were Tsubaki, Maka, and Soul, and only because they were his friends (and frankly, Tsubaki could be pretty scary when she wanted to be).

"I did, the moment you joined our little group," Mifune growled back, not backing away from the enraged 20 year old. "It could very well be a trap, and I'm not letting you lead them back to Angela."

"Who said I would? I just need to check to see if they're ok. I won't lead anyone to anywhere, you get me samurai?" With that, BlackStar turned to walk away, but stopped when he heard the sound of a blade being drawn from its sheath. He turned slowly, eyes narrowed in anger.

"I can't let you leave," was all Mifune said as he held his sword in front of him effortlessly. BlackStar growled, reaching down and pulling a small knife from his boot. He held it in front of him with a practiced air, and smirked devilishly.

"Try and stop me."

The ring of metal meeting metal echoed through the clearing as the two experienced fighters met in the middle, their blades clanging together. They both ignored Angela's screamed protests as they duked it out, both fighting with a skill that would have taken the young witch's breath away if they hadn't been trying to kill each other.

BlackStar ducked under the older male's arm, swinging his knife around to slice his tendons, but Mifune easily leapt into the air, grabbing onto an overhanging branch and swinging himself around and letting go. The assassin hissed a curse, diving to the side to avoid the swordsman's blade. He wasn't quite quick enough, and three years of fighting with mainly guns had taken from him some of his hard gained skill, and he hissed as he felt the blade leave a small cut in his calf.

He hissed as he slid to a stop, spinning quickly on his heel. The two men ran towards each other again, but quickly skidded to a halt when Angela, tired of being ignored, stepped in the two men's path. She remained perfectly still as their blades kissed her throat, for she knew that they would never hurt her.

Sure enough, both BlackStar and Mifune jumped back, shocked by how close Angela had come to losing her head. "That is ENOUGH!" she screamed, patience running dry. "Mifune! This is unacceptable behavior! BlackStar is our friend! And if he wants to go check to make sure his friends, not to mention girlfriend, are okay, then by god, we will help him!"

"But-" Mifune started, eyes wide. Angela had never snapped at him like this, _ever. _

"_No buts," _she hissed, burgundy eyes seeming to light up with the magic flowing through her veins. BlackStar took another step back as a green mist began to curl around her feet, a visible sign of her indignation and rage. "_We are going to help him. I made a witches' promise, and I will follow through with my promise. Now put down your sword Samuri, or I will end you."_

Something primitive took the teenager over in that moment, and BlackStar couldn't help but think that if all of the witches on the council had this much power, then the world was fucked.

"Alright, we'll help the idiot," Mifune said, trying to placate the magical time bomb that stood in front of him. Angela's expression went from angered to calm, then back to a bright smile.

"Good!" she chirped, skipping towards her bag. She grabbed something out of the leather sac, and slipped it into a hidden pocket sewn into her dress. "Now, let's go!" the chameleon witch said with a smirk, snapping her fingers and making her cloak appear in a puff of green smoke.

BlackStar smiled, and when Angela walked past him to Mifune's side, the two high fived with identical smirks.

This was gonna be _fun._

**~O**

Tsubaki saw herself as a very patient person. I mean, how else would she be able to handle BlackStar every day? So yes, Tsubaki was a fairly patient person.

Waiting two days while some subpar _moron _flew the Grigori to no man's land? Yeah, _just _beyond her patience level.

"I need to kill something," the Japanese woman grunted, her eye twitching violently. She felt the rest of the crew shift their attention to her (except Maka, who was sleeping peacefully in Soul's lap), but she didn't really care. She had been calm and collected when the meatheads from Capone's gang dropped food into her bunk every few hours, she had been calm when the _fucktard _that was flying the ship almost crashed them into an elderly home (really, who was STUPID enough to fly that low!), she had even been calm when Patti had decided that singing "99 Bottles of Beer On The Wall" was a good way to pass the time.

Well, until she reached 57 with no sign of stopping, then everyone unanimously agreed that her mouth was to be duck taped closed for the rest of the trip.

But the poor woman was at the end of her rope. She wanted to see some blood, and she wanted it _now_. She smelled like old fish, she hadn't slept at all, Patti was singing _again, _and goddamnit, Tsubaki hadn't had a cup of coffee in two days.

Tsubaki without her coffee is a bad combo. Ask anyone.

"Calm down Tsubaki," Soul grunted, absent mindedly stroking the younger pilot's hair as she slept. "We're gonna land soon, and when we do, bam. You'll be killing folk and pouring their blood into your coffee."

"That's scary Soul," Liz said with a shudder, trying to push the mental imagery from her mind. Any other day, Tsubaki would have agreed with her, but on this particular morning, she just smiled.

"I'd like that," she said happily. Suddenly, the ship hit some turbulence, knocking each of the crew members from their spots and waking Maka with a jolt.

"Ack!" She hit the floor with a yelp, having flailed out of Soul's grasp after her rude awakening. Soul would have laughed at her misery, but she already had a concussion so that extra bump could mean nothing good, and he heard the distinct sound of the landing gear lowering.

"We're landing," he said, standing quickly and motioning for his crew to do the same. He pulled Maka up easily and lead her to the wall, where he pried the panel covering the lock mechanism loose (Tsubaki had it accessible at all times in case she had to lock a rowdy BlackStar up).

Soul turned and grabbed Maka by the shoulders, forcing her to look up at him. "You think you can do this while all concussed and confused?" he asked seriously. The blonde smiled, patting his cheek and turning towards the panel with a laugh.

"I could do this in my sleep babe, I got this," she shot back easily, kneeling before the panel and pushing her goggles down on her head. She got to work, the occasional sound of turning gears proof her attempts were working.

Soul turned back towards the crew, and smirked when he saw they had all grabbed their weapons again, loading them with ammo. Liz tossed him his pistol and he caught it easily, twirling it once before shoving it in his belt.

There was a loud click behind him, and Maka laughed triumphantly. "Told ya I could do it!" she said with a smile, turning towards Soul while pushing the goggles back. He grinned at her, ruffling her hair.

"Never doubted you for a second," the albino replied, handing Maka her weapons. Once she had clipped the rapier to her belt and tucked the pistol next to it, Soul turned to the crew and asked, "Everybody ready?"

"Finally!" was the only response he got, so he assumed that meant yes. Soul climbed up the ladder, carefully opening the hatch just a bit. The hall was flooded with Capone's men, all of them rushing about in preparation to get off.

"Someone get those Shibusen folks out of their cell," Soul heard someone yell. "We're gonna take 'em outside and use them as bait!"

Soul pulled the hatch closed, and turned towards the rest of the crew. "Alright, on my signal, fire," instructed the captain, motioning for everyone to join him at the base of the ladder. They all cocked their guns and pointed them towards the place where they knew the man would be standing.

"Come on you maggots!" the man screamed, not noticing that the door was unlocked as he yanked it open. "Time for you to-"

He trailed off as he was greeted by the barrels of seven guns and the smirks of seven aeronauts.

"'Ello!" Tsubaki said cheerily.

They pulled the triggers.

Boom.

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

**V**

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	13. The Big Star's Rescue

***IMPORTANT CONTEST INFO***

**I'm holding a contest during the BlackStar Arc! If you design a cover for the BlackStar Arc, colored and everything, you will receive a special, never before seen one-shot from AG, the first draft of how Maka and Soul met! It's totally different from the version I posted, so it should be super fun. The contest will last the entire BlackStar Arc, and if you would like more details, please PM me or message me on dA.**

**~O**

**BlackStar Arc: Chapter 6**

**The Big Star's Rescue**

_(THIS CHAPTER IS RATED M FOR GORE)_

**O~**

Tsubaki couldn't really say she was a huge fan of fighting. She preferred to talk things out diplomatically, to try and smooth the rough patches in communication with time and tenderness.

But let's be fair, in her line of work, that didn't often happen.

So she fought, with a grace that only a Nakatsukasa could. She preferred the chain scythe, but she was well versed in the ways of many traditional Japanese weapons. Wielding a katana made her heart seize up painfully with memories of laughing blue eyes and a brother's love, but at the moment, she couldn't care less.

Painful memories of her brother or not, she didn't hesitate to grab a katana and slice effortlessly through a man's head when her crew was in danger.

Tsubaki growled, flicking the blood off the weapon as she hid behind a wall, bullets screaming past her. Her back hit the blood- soaked wall with a thud, and the heavy breathing next her reassured her that Kidd was doing about as well as he could do with only one gun and limited ammo. They had somehow managed to get separated from the rest of the crew, and now they stood, facing off against ten of Capone's men. It would have been a fairly easy fight if they didn't have to hide from the constant waves of gunfire that the men were shooting up at them.

"How are you holding up, Kidd?" she asked, trying to peak around the wall, but jerking back when a bullet hit awfully close to her nose.

"Besides the crippling asymmetry of the fact that I only have one gun?" Kidd said, visibly cringing at the words. "Fairly well."

"I thought you had almost gotten over the whole symmetry thing," Tsubaki said, watching as Kidd got down close to the floor and shot a few bullets, pulling back instantly as they heard a thump of a body hitting the floor.

"It's a process," was all he said, reloading his gun quickly.

"How do you think the others are doing?" the Japanese woman asked quietly as she grabbed her own gun, one of BlackStar's original designs. She peeked around the corner like Kidd had, shooting a few times and managing to get one guy on the ground with a bullet to the leg.

"Well, seeing as Soul and Maka ran off together, they're either fine or both dead trying to protect the other," he deadpanned, grinning when Tsubaki snorted. "And I know for a fact that Patti and Liz can take care of themselves. They'll be fine."

She didn't bring up the concern she heard in his voice, knowing that he wouldn't appreciate her insightfulness about the human mind at the current time.

After a few minutes, they were able to successfully get through the hall, stepping over bodies as they ran towards the bridge. Tsubaki was grateful that Kidd didn't question why they were going there, because frankly, she was too exhausted, both emotionally and physically, to explain. All she wanted to do was kill the man who had threatened BlackStar, then sleep until everything stopped hurting.

They passed through the kitchen, and both winced at the state it was in. The group of men that had taken over their ship had left it a disaster, and Tsubaki literally had to drag Kidd through the mess while he had a small heart attack.

She would have yelled at him if they weren't so close to the bridge already. They had run off in the opposite direction in order to keep up with the others. Maka had yelled something about taking back the engine room, Soul and Blair running after her, and Patti dragged her sister off to look for more ammo in the cargo bay, leaving Tsubaki and Kidd to fight their way back up.

Now that she thought about it, it was a very silly way of doing things, but oh well.

They both flattened themselves against the kitchen wall, on opposite sides of the door. Tsubaki winced as she saw the corpse of the man that had had the misfortune of opening the hatch to their prison. His body was in shreds, blood dripping everywhere. She would have been sick at the sight of another human so brutally mutilated, but years on the battlefield had hardened her mind and stomach.

"Let's go," she breathed after reloading her gun, tucking it in the waistband of her pants and gripping her katana tightly. Kidd nodded, loading up his gun as well and frowning when his fingers brushed the bottom of his bullet pouch that hung from his belt.

The two aeronauts ran down the hall, Tsubaki going first and slashing through the few men standing guard, Kidd shooting anyone who got too close. They could only be so quiet while Kidd was shooting, so when they reached the door, it was no surprise that it was securely locked.

Tsubaki growled quietly, glaring through the small window. There were four men in the room, one of whom Tsubaki recognized as Capone. He only looked slightly nervous, but held her gaze. She scowled at him, and without looking away, pointed towards a hidden panel by the door.

"Kidd, would you like to do the honors," she all but growled, eyes never leaving Capone's. After Netherton's attack on the ship, Soul had Maka install a secret unlocking mechanism, hidden into the wall. Tsubaki silently thanked Soul and his over protectiveness, grabbing her gun and cocking it as the door slid open with a hiss.

She must have been quite a sight to see as the door disappeared, black hair shimmering and clothes soaked in blood, glaring daggers at the occupants of the room. The Japanese woman wasted no time in killing two of the lackies in the room, Kidd easily taking care of the last. Capone reached for his gun, but stopped when Tsubaki crossed the room in a heartbeat, katana at his throat.

"Now, now," Capone said, chin tilted up, "let's not be hasty."

"Where's BlackStar?"she growled.

"If I knew where he was, do you think I'd be going through all this trouble?"

"But you have a general idea," Tsubaki hissed, her blade a hair's breadth away from Capone's windpipe. "So where. Is. He?"

"The last we saw of him, he was running this way with two fugitives."

"And you were going to draw him out by kidnapping us," she said, eyes narrowed. "Too bad you won't live to see your plan work." Grabbing the hilt of her sword with both hands, she brought it up over her head, bringing it down with a yell-

"The BlackStar _I_ know won't come."

Her sword stopped centimeters from his head, Tsubaki glaring down at him. "BlackStar would never abandon us," she hissed.

"Oh would he? He already left, what makes you think he'll come back?" Capone asked, smirking. "BlackStar is from a ruthless clan of murderers, did you know that? The Star Clan. He was _raised_ on blood. He was forced to watch as his father killed his mother when he was just a child. Did you know that?"

He watched in badly-hidden glee as the aeronaut's sword began to shake, her eyes wide.

"Do you know how old he was when he ran away, when I took him in?" Capone stopped for dramatic effect, buying himself time. "He was twelve."

The sword fell to Tsubaki's side, her eyes wide. Twelve. _Twelve. _He was working for this maniac when he was still just a kid? She had met him when he was seventeen, how long had he been away from Capone when they first talked? How tainted were his hands when she let him touch her for the first time, a reassuring squeeze to her hand as he led her onto the Grigori for the first time.

"He was the best assassin I had," Capone continued, eyes wild. "Deadly and quiet, fast too. When he got back and bragged about how he would surpass god, I believed him. Did you?"

Tsubaki snarled at him, bringing her katana back up so that it pointed at him, the tip kissing his throat. "Of course I did," she growled. "I still do."

"Such sweet devotion to your crew mates," Capone practically sang. "Devotion looks good on you."

"Shut your fucking mouth," she growled again. Tsubaki wasn't one to curse, and her own eyes widened a bit in surprise.

"Innocent looks good on you, too," he said with an almost demonic laugh.

"Hurry this up Tsubaki, we don't have time for this," Kidd hissed from where he stood at the door, keeping watch.

"Stay out of this boy," Capone snapped. He looked at Tsubaki again. "Even after he abandoned you and your crew, even after I told you about his past, you still believe in him. Why?"

"Because," Tusbaki started with a growl, "the BlackStar _I _know is loyal, and kind, and caring. He's _not_ a murderer."

"You don't know that," Capone sneered.

"People change," Tsubaki said easily.

"They never change. You're deluding yourself girl."

"_You don't know him!" _Tsubaki screamed, tears rolling down her face. "You've never known him! Not like I do! You've never his face light up when one of his inventions works! You've never watched him play with the rest of the crew in the cargo hold!" Her voice started to shake. "I know BlackStar. I've seen him at his best and worse. I've held him when nightmares make it impossible to sleep. I've watched him grow from a boy to a man." She sniffed. "I've known what it's liked to be loved by him, to be looked at with such awe and devotion that it would make your cold dead heart _burn_ in the wake of his passion_!"_

Capone looked up at her with wide eyes, her chest heaving as she fought to control her tears. "You think you know BlackStar?" she hissed, pressing her blade closer into his throat. "You don't know him at al-"

"_AGH!"_

Tsubaki spun around at the sound of Kidd's cry of pain, eyes wide as she watched one of the lackeys she _thought _she had killed slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of his head again, Kidd falling gracelessly to the ground. "KIDD!" she screamed, rushing towards him. She was jerked back with a cough, Capone's arms tightening around her neck.

"So you're the reason BlackStar ran," he said, his tone conversational, despite the fact that he was slowly strangling her. "Why am I not surprised? He always had a weak spot for pretty girls."

She gasped for breath, clawing at the arm that was killing her. Her vision started tunneling, and she clung desperately onto life. '_No! I can't die! Not yet!'_

She was still fighting weakly when there was a sound of a bullet whizzing through the air. It hit home, and Capone had no time to scream. He just thudded against her back, blood dripping down her back and his arm loosening its grip around her neck.

Tsubaki fell to the ground, the dead man still on her back, as she gasped for breath. She heard something skitter up to her, and looked up.

"What the…?" she grumbled, looking at the clockwork chameleon with a quirked eyebrow. It quirked its head to the side with a whirring sound. She mimicked the action, oblivious to the sound of someone dropping down from the ceiling. "Well hello there little one," she croaked quietly.

And then she passed out.

**~O**

BlackStar pushed Capone off of Tsubaki without a second thought, scooping his lover up in his arms. "Tsubaki? Tsubaki!" he all but yelled, shaking her gently. Angela's chameleon ran up her leg to lie on her chest. The little machine glowed and the gears turned loudly.

"_She'll be fine," _ Angela said, her voice distorted and crackling through the chameleon's mouth. "_She's just got a twisted ankle and a few bruises."_

BlackStar sighed in relief, hugging her closer to him. "Thank god," he breathed, kissing her forehead. "Have you found the others yet?" he asked the chameleon, knowing that somewhere on the ship, Angela was watching him through the little machine, her eyes blank and magic flowing around her.

"_Well we found five of the- __**WHERE IS HE! BLACKSTAR, YOU BASTARD, YOU ARE DEAD MEAT WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU! YOU HEAR ME! DEAD! MEAT!"**_

BlackStar smiled, sighing in relief. Well, she definitely found Maka.

"Kidd's up here with me," BlackStar said, looking over at his friend. "He got knocked out by the looks of it."

"… _And Capone?"_

"Dead," the blunette growled. "I shot him while he was attacking Tsubaki. Bastard didn't see it coming." He heard Angela sigh in relief and relay the news of the dead mob boss to the rest of the crew. They cheered in excitement, and he heard Patti say something about coming up and getting Kidd.

"_Alright, we're all moving to the infirmary," _she told BlackStar. "_Soul's leg is broken and Liz is bleeding a lot, so just bring Tsubaki down. Blair and I will take care of the bodies."_

"Gotcha," he said. "I'll wait for Patti up here."

"_Good job BlackStar- '__**NO, NOT GOOD JOB. WHERE IS THAT BASTARD? I'MMA KILL HIM!'- **__Maka calm down!"_

BlackStar was still laughing when Patti ran up, checking on Kidd before tackling him. He grunted at the assault, but grinned widely. "Hey short stack," he greeted. She smiled brightly at him before burying her face in his back.

"Welcome home," she said happily, hugging him tightly. BlackStar smiled, still cradling Tsubaki protectively to his chest as he reached back with one hand and ruffled Patti's hair affectionately.

"It's good to be home," he said with a smile. "Now pick up your useless boyfriend and let's go let Maka beat me up."

Patti giggled, running over to Kidd and hefting him onto her back easily. "She's just grumpy because Soul got hurt," she said as he joined her in the doorway, carrying Tsubaki in his arms. "I'm sure Maka's just as happy that you're home as the rest of us are!" BlackStar grinned, walking behind Patti as she babbled on, telling him about what he had missed while he was gone. He winced when she told him about Tsubaki's break down, and his arms tightened around her.

"I didn't want to leave," he blurted out, Patti stopping and turning to look at him. "I… He would have killed her. Killed all of you."

"BlackStar, we have our lives threatened on a daily basis," she said almost exasperatedly, smiling at him. "We would have helped you! And we would have been able to take care of Capone with much less of a mess!"

BlackStar smiled, nodding as they started to walk again. When they got to the infirmary, BlackStar was tackled promptly after he set Tsubaki down by both Angela and Liz, Patti joining in the hug. Soul, who was having trouble keeping Maka from killing him while bedridden, grinned widely at him.

"Welcome back, dumbass," he said with a smirk.

"Good to be back," BlackStar said, hugging Liz and Angela back.

"-_LET ME AT 'EM I JUST WANNA BREAK HIS SPINE-"_

"Good to see you too, Maka," BlackStar said, letting go of the three girls to say hi to the other two.

Maka promptly punched him in the nose when he got too close.

"GOD DAMN IT THAT JUST HEALED!" he yelled, clutching his bleeding nose. Maka smirked and Soul just facepalmed.

"That was for abandoning us," she said, hopping up so that she sat on Soul's cot. BlackStar glared at her and she just laughed. "But seriously, don't do that again," she all but growled.

BlackStar looked up at her and smiled, nodding. "Trust me," he said as he looked at Tsubaki's unconscious form, "I'm not going anywhere ever again."

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

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	14. The God and His Goddess

***IMPORTANT CONTEST INFO***

**The contest is over! The winner will be announced in the next chapter.**

**~O**

**BlackStar Arc: Chapter 6**

**The God and His Goddess**

**O~**

BlackStar was not a hard person to find, at least not when he wasn't trying to hide.

It had only been a few minutes since Tsubaki had woken up in the infirmary, and she could already hear BlackStar's loud voice. At first it had shocked her, hearing his familiar laugh ringing through the ship. Shocked her so that she couldn't move.

Then it infuriated her.

She just went through hell and back because of him! She had been heartbroken and tormented by thoughts of him and how he had loved her. She had her heart stomped on by that despicable creature named Capone when he told her that the man she loved was a murderer. And he was _laughing!?_

After several minutes of the conflicting emotions battling in her chest, she gave up on making any sense of them.

She just wanted to see him again. Then everything would make sense.

She sat up slowly, looking around the infirmary with a wince. Her hand flew to her neck and her fingers brushed fabric. Bandages.

Twisting her torso so that she wouldn't agitate the wrappings around her neck, Tsubaki saw an unconscious Kidd to her left, and a bored looking Liz to her right. "Well if it isn't Sleeping Beauty," the gunner said with a small smirk.

"Liz? What are you doing here?" Tsubaki asked, a note of concern in her weak voice.

"One of the bastards got me in the side," she grunted, lifting her shirt to reveal gauze wrapping around her stomach.

"Why do we even let you fight anymore?"

"Haha, very funny. I'm a great fighter."

"You got _stabbed! _" Liz just huffed, rolling her eyes.

"I'll be up and walking in no time, just you wait-" BlackStar's loud laughter interrupted her sentence, and her eyes immediately went to Tsubaki. Her face had pinched up oddly, and Liz didn't know whether to laugh or punch BlackStar in the face.

"... When did BlackStar get here?" she asked calmly, her face smoothing out until it was blank.

"During the fight with Capone. Apparently he sniped a few of his underlings, sneaked his way up to the bridge, and shot Capone while he was strangling you." Liz scowled. "He deserved a much crueler death than what BlackStar gave him."

"Yes," Tsubaki said quietly, "yes he did." She stood gracefully, and the blonde couldn't help but wonder how anyone could be that graceful with a twisted ankle. Must be a Japanese thing. "How long have I been out?" she asked softly.

"Only about 9 hours," Liz said just as softly. "BlackStar was here for most of it, but then his witch friend dragged him off for a game of Crate Ball. A pick me up, she said."

"And who is this... witch friend?" Liz missed the slight hint of anger and jealousy.

"Angela? Oh, she's a sweetheart. And she can do this cool thing where she turns invisibl- wait where are you going?" Liz watched as Tsubaki stormed out of the room, looking eerily calm.

"I'm going to see BlackStar," was all she said, and Liz couldn't help but wince at her cold, angry tone.

"Don't beat him up too much!" she called after her friend. "Maka already broke his nose again! And be careful on that ankle!"

Tsubaki barely heard her, limping towards the cargo hold slowly. She could hear the other's voices now, and it sounded like Patti's team was winning.

"Woohoo, eat that _Dork_Star!"

"Give your God the ball!"

"_Move your ass Mifune!"_

"Don't yell at Mifune like that Maka, you're not even playing!"

"_MOVE YOUR ASS ANYWAYS!"_

Tsubaki stepped through the door, and all conversation came to a halt. She first looked over to where Maka was sitting between Soul's legs, one hand resting on his cast and the other held above her head where she seemed to be gesturing wildly at the players. Patti had jumped on the back of a short teen with dreads, and a taller man with blonde hair looked like he had been trying to steal the ball from BlackStar.

BlackStar had dropped the ball the second he had seen her, eyes wide as he took her in. She felt relief bubble up inside of her, but pushed it away.

She was still pissed.

"Tsubaki," he breathed softly, moving towards her as a wide grin split his face. "Damn, I wanted to be there when you woke up but-!"

A loud crack echoed through the cargo hold, a large red handprint appearing on BlackStar's cheek. The other occupants of the room gaped as Tsubaki brought her hand down, glaring at him.

"Tsubaki!?" she started with a hiss. "You disappear for nearly two weeks and all you can think of to say is my _name!? _No 'I missed you', no 'I'm sorry I disappeared and left you to worry', no 'Oh by the way I was being _hunted down by a mobster'!?" _BlackStar was staring at her in shock, and the part of her brain that was hopelessly in love with him noted that he had gotten tanner while he was gone, a difficult thing to do. "Do you know how _worried _I was!? H-how much I _missed you? And all you can say is __**my name?"**_

Tsubaki had started crying without noticing and before she could rant anymore, BlackStar was kissing her, hard and fast in his attack. She tried to struggle, tried to push him away so she could be mad at him, but that was a pointless fight. She had missed him too much.

"Tsubaki, I'm so sorry," he said when he pulled back for air, his eyes still closed. "I wanted to keep you safe. I wasn't thinking." He looked up at her, and all of her anger melted away at the soft remorse in his eyes. "A god should never leave his most faithful follower behind, not for anything."

"Damn right you shouldn't," Tsubaki breathed as her fingers tangled in his hair and she pulled him to her again, kissing him for all she was worth. Their friends all broke free of their shocked silence and cheered happily, Soul whistling loudly. When BlackStar pulled away, he was grinning widely at her, and she smiled shyly back.

He felt a nudge in his side, and when he looked down to see the little velvet box floating around, bumping against his side. BlackStar grunted in alarm, snatching it out of the air and glaring at Angela, who was whistling innocently. Maka and Soul both made scooting motions with their hands, the latter mouthing "Grow a pair and do it!"

"Tsubaki, there's something I need to ask you."

"Yes Black*Star?" She smiled sweetly at him even though his shift in mood made her curious.

"The thing is," he panicked, "Iamagodandyouaremygoddesswes houldtotallygetmarried...andmakeawesomegodlybabies!"

The rest of the crew, including Tsubaki, stared at him with various expressions of confusion. After a few tense moments, Maka cupped her hands around her mouth.

"Booooo! Do it right dumbass!"

"I'm trying!" BlackStar snapped, his face a bright red much to his horror. Tsubaki was still looking at him curiously when he took a step back, tugging at the ends of his hair nervously.

"I don't think he planned this out," Soul said in Maka's ear, and the blonde rolled her eyes.

"Good grief- Get down on one knee first!" she yelled. Tsubaki's eyes widened in realization as BlackStar half glared at Maka and half looked at her in relief as he did exactly as she asked. "Good, now, try again. Talk slower this time."

He took a deep breath, and grabbed Tsubaki's hand in his own. As her blood pumped quickly to her face in an attempt to match the shade of red on his face, BlackStar held the tiny box up, not daring to open it yet.

"I... Tsubaki, you..." He took another deep breath. "Tsubaki, you are my goddess, and I know I will never find someone else as worthy as you to be at my side for the rest of my life. Will you do me the great honor of being my wife?"

He opened the box with an easy flick of his thumb, and Tsubaki's hand went to her mouth as the sapphire and diamonds glittered in the light. For a few moments, all she could do was stare dumbly at him and the ring, and BlackStar started to squirm.

"Did I do it right this time?" he asked, looking at Maka. "Because I don't think I-"

"Yes!" Tsubaki all but yelled, nodding fast. "Yes of course!"

"Yes I did it right or yes you'll marry m-"

"Yes!" she said again, and dropped to her knees, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tight. She laughed happily as the other people in the cargo hold cheered again. BlackStar quickly slipped the ring on her finger, and Tsubaki laughed again.

"Wrong finger BlackStar," she said with a teary smile. BlackStar huffed and moved it to her ring finger after she wiggled it for him. "There we go," she said, beaming at him. He smiled back, kissing her softly before Angela tackled them both.

"Congrats you two!" she said happily. Mifune just grinned at the two.

"WAIT, I HEAR CHEERING," Liz's voice yelled. "WHAT DID I MISS? GUYS? GUYS!"

HORIZONTAL LINE HORIZONTAL LINE HORIZONTAL LINE HORIZONTAL LINE

"We really should be going," Mifune said, but his quiet request was ignored as the girls all squealed and hugged and said their goodbyes.

"Make sure to write to us!" Tsubaki said, fussing over Angela like a mother hen. "And call us if you two need any help."

"Yeah!" Patti chimed in. "You're a part of the crew now, so we got your backs!" Angela's face lit up.

"A part of the crew?"

"You know, like an honorary member. I think Soul would have a heart attack if we took on another couple of people!"

"Let's keep the heart attacks to a minimum please," Soul said as he hobbled in on his crutches. Maka, who had been worrying over Angela with Tsubaki, immediately went to his side, making sure that his crutches weren't getting caught in the grates that lined the floor.

"Are you sure you two don't want to stay? At least until the wedding?" BlackStar asked, tightening his arm around Tsubaki's waist as they both smiled at the mention of upcoming nuptials.

"No," Mifune said bluntly. He grunted a second later when Angela elbowed him in the stomach, _hard_.

"We'd love to, but when news of Capone's death reaches the council, the witch in my spot is gonna be pissed," Angela explained. "And we've heard that she's been seen in Europe recently. We need to stay in hiding for just a little longer, and no offence, but you guys aren't very stealthy." BlackStar puffed up, the part of him that was an assassin immediately offended.

"I can be stealthy!" he yelled loudly.

"Of course you can BlackStar," Soul said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, you're as stealthy as a puma," Kidd continued, patting the blunette's shoulder condescendingly.

"Or a police siren," Maka added, giggling quietly. Soul laughed, leaning against the pilot to give his arm a rest.

"_Anyways_," Tsubaki said loudly, trying to get the group back on topic. "You're both invited to the wedding of course, but I don't know how we're going to be able to send you the invitations if you're moving around all the time."

"Actually, I just got off the phone with Justin," Soul said, turning towards Angela and Mifune. "If you two want, he's agreed to let you stay at the Shibusen branch in Paris. You'll have some of the best protection Shibusen can offer, and all the luxuries of a stable home."

Angela's eyes were shining at the thought of not having to move around from camp to camp, but Mifune looked dubious.

"I've been friends with Justin my whole life," Maka said, smiling at the two. "You can trust him to keep you two safe."

Mifune opened his mouth, surely to protest, when Angela looked up at him with wide, dewy eyes. He made a choking sound towards the back of his throat as she stared him down, her bottom lip quivering. After a few seconds, the samurai just huffed, looking at Soul and nodding.

"Tell your friend we accept," he grumbled reluctantly. BlackStar just grinned, patting the older man's shoulder.

"Well, we better be going," Mifune said, picking up his bag and tossing Angela her's. She caught it with a huff, and once it was on her back, was tackled by all the girls in a big hug.

It got to the point where Mifune had to drag Angela away, the young witch waving to all her friends with tears in her eyes. The crew all waved back, not stopping until the two disappeared into the tree line.

One by one the crew vanished back into the ship, until only BlackStar and Tsubaki were left behind. He glanced at his new fiancee out of the corner of his eye, pulling her closer to him. Tsubaki cuddled into his side, her arms going around his waist as she asked, "What now?"

"Now? I don't really know," the blunette said slowly, biting the inside of his cheek as he looked down at his shoulder and the tattoo that was ingrained into his flesh. He smiled, taking a deep breath before kissing Tsubaki's temple and grinning widely at her. "Let's head back to our room," he said, taking her hand in his.

"I have a lot to tell you."

**~O**

Maka spun in her chair as she and Soul hung out in the bridge, her arms outstretched as she tried to catch the air in her hands. Soul watched with a grin, occasionally reaching over with his good leg and kicking her chair just as it started to slow down, cueing a flood of giggles and a girlish shriek from his pilot.

"Soul! Ugh, stop!" she shrieked with a grin, glaring at him every time her chair spun her around to face him.

"But I'm booooored," the twenty year old whined, sounding more like he was five. But there really was nothing else to do on the ship right now besides bother Maka. After Mifune and Angela had left, Liz had gone back to sleep and Patti had retreated into the infirmary, waiting for her sister and lover to wake back up. BlackStar had disappeared with Tsubaki into their bunk (Maka said they were talking, Soul had bet that they were going at it like rabbits), and Blair had gone off to do... whatever it is that Blair did when she wasn't clinging to Maka.

"Well stop spinning me! I'm gonna be sick!" That got Soul to stop, holding his crutch out to her so she could grab it and stop herself. As Maka waited for the world to stop tilting, there was a loud beeping and Soul turned the chair he was sitting in, which happened to be Tsubaki's, and looked around for the Magic Holo controls.

"They're the big blue button and the two smaller red buttons-"

"I can figure this out!"

After a few seconds of fumbling with the controls, Soul somehow managed to get the system working, and a tall woman with sharp cheekbones and an even sharper glare shimmered into being. Both captain and pilot immediately stood up, saluting even as Maka wobbled, her world still a little off balance.

"General Azusa," Soul said, his expression schooled into a mask of indifference as Maka openly stared at the older woman. "It is a pleasure to see-"

"Why did you go off course Evans?" Azusa said, not beating around the bush. "Your crew has been causing issues in the lower sectors and I've got half the American division on my ass about why there's a random warship flying through peace zones." Soul frowned, putting his hand down and crossing his arms instead.

"We had an issue with a mob boss in the States," Soul said flatly. "The issue has been taken care of." Azusa's eyes narrowed.

"So there was another massacre on the Grigori, is that what you were trying to say?"

Both Maka and Soul bristled, Soul pulling his lip back in a snarl. "What does this even have to do with you, General? This isn't even your sector."

"Well, since you blocked General Albarn's number," Azusa said, her eyes rolling when both Maka and Soul shared a sheepish look, "I'm stuck calling you. I expect full reports from everyone on board, and Captain, I'll be sure to have _your _paperwork waiting when you dock next."

Soul groaned as soon as the general's form was gone, slumping back into Tsubaki's chair. "I hate paperwork," he grunted, watching out of the corner of his eyes as Maka sat on the arm of the chair. "I've mentioned this before, right?"

"Only every time you have to fill out a form," Maka said with a small smile, patting his bandaged leg gently.

"And I will continue to mention it every time I have to."

"I don't doubt it."

The two friends sat in silence for a few minutes, Soul playing with the end of her pigtail and Maka fiddling with the ties on his jacket. They both heard a quiet "thwump" as the paperwork spoofed into being, and Soul groaned again.

"I'm going to hand these out," Maka said, hopping off the chair and scooping up the papers, ignoring Soul's protests when she dropped a large pile of papers on his desk.

"Maka! This isn't fair I can't run away right now!" he whined, and Maka just giggled, ruffling his hair and dislodging his goggles.

"Sorry Soul, you gotta do it. And no making paper airplanes this time!"

Soul huffed, watching her as she left, and with one last sigh, got to work.

_'It was a quiet day on the docks and we were unloading our latest cargo...'_

**O~**

**Reviews keep steam in our engine,**

**and food in our stomachs.**

**(And we'd really rather not go hungry)**

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	15. We Should Just Have A Vegas Wedding

***IMPORTANT CONTEST INFO***

**Wow, this took forever. Anyways, onto the announcment of the winner! For those of you who forgot what the constest was about, I asked the fans to design a cover for the BlackStar arc, and the winner would get a first glimpse of the alternate Airship Grigori first chapter! There were a lot of good submissions, all done by talented artists, but a winner has emerged! The winner is...**

**_Scotty1994 on deviantart!_**

**Congrats to Scotty1994. Your piece really stood out to me as a good representation of not only BlackStar and Tsubaki's relationship, but the happiness that they were both striving for during the whole arc. I will message you on dA as well with the details of how to get your prize. For all the readers, you can find a link to the winning piece, as well as the other contestants' work on my user page.**

**Thanks to everyone who participating! You'll be able to read the alternate beginning in a month or two, so don't feel too bad. Now, back to the story!**

**~O**

**Maybe We Should Just Have A Vegas Wedding Instead...**

**O~**

"You did WHAT!?"

Tsubaki cringed, trying to focus on peeling the potatoes she would used to make tonight's dinner as two incredulous blondes stared her down. "I don't see why you two are making such a huge deal about this," Tsubaki said, squirming uncomfortably. "He offered to help, and who am I to turn him down? BlackStar and I want to get married as soon as possible."

"That is no reason to let KIDD plan your WEDDING!" Maka nearly shrieked. "Of everyone on board, you picked Kidd?" Liz nodded, agreeing with Maka wholeheartedly.

"No one else offered!" Tsubaki protested.

"I would have done it!"

"So would I!" Maka agreed. "Hell, I still have some contacts from back home, we could've gotten you a professional planner!"

"Then you should have said so earlier," Tsubaki said. "I trust Kidd to do a good job. It could have been worse. BlackStar wanted to do all of the planning himself." This prompted another shudder from both Liz and Maka, and the two woman reluctantly backed off, focusing on fixing dinner.

Tsubaki couldn't stop thinking about it though. Had she made a mistake letting Kidd be in charge of planning what was supposed to be the happiest day of her life? Kidd could be a bit of perfectionist sometimes... okay, most of the time, but surely he would put her wedding before his obsessive compulsive.

Right?

_Right!?_

Kidd picked that moment to come through the door, his sights set on Tsubaki as he power walked closer. "Tsubaki! There's a huge issue," he said seriously, causing the poor woman to nearly have a heart attack.

"What, what's wrong!?" she asked, heart in her throat. She needed this wedding to go smoothly and the planning done on time, or all of her family and friends wouldn't be able to come. They were scattered across the world, and the time frame during which they could all come was small.

"I've done some calculations, and there is an uneven number of people in the wedding party!" Kidd nearly wailed, and Tsubaki felt her heart crawl down into her stomach. "You'll have to get rid of one of your bridesmaids."

Liz and Maka, who were both bridesmaids, immediately pointed whatever kitchen utensils they were using at the doctor. "Not on your life," Liz threatened. "I already picked out my dress."

"But it will be hideously asymmetrical!" he said, affronted. "Don't you want Tsubaki's wedding to be perfect?"

"Kidd," Tsubaki said gently, cutting in before Liz threw the wisk at Kidd's head, "just because I have more bridesmaids than BlackStar has groomsmen isn't going to ruin my wedding, I promise you." Kidd seemed to contemplate that for a moment.

"Well, it is your wedding," he said slowly, looking as if admitting that fact pained him. "Are you sure-"

"Yes, yes I am," Tsubaki said quickly. "Now, did you need anything else?"

"Oh! Yes I do! I have some swatches here for you to look at!"

As the two became more absorbed in their planning, Maka and Liz shared a look. Though one crisis had been avoided, they had a feeling that the two months leading up to the wedding would be much, much worse.

**~O**

"How has no one died on this ship yet?"

Maka looked up at her friend with a quirked eyebrow, her hip popping out to the side. "What do you mean, Soul?"

Soul huffed, leaning against the hull of the ship. "I mean how has no one on this ship died yet?" he repeated. "Kidd is nuts!" Maka snorted, looking back at the emblem on the side of the Grigori. The wedding was in two weeks - hopefully, but no one was sure anymore - and the whole crew was busy cleaning the ship, inside and out. Maka was busy repainting the emblem on the side, random splats of paint covering her from head to toe. Soul was focused on a rather distracting spot of silver paint on her collarbone, but quickly looked away when Maka looked back at him.

"He's a good doctor," she said with a shrug, "and normally he tries to keep his OCD out of the medical bay. Maybe because the situation isn't life-threatening, he's just letting himself be... well, Kidd."

Soul hummed thoughtfully, dipping a finger in the blue paint and smearing it on her cheek, smirking when she squeaked. "True, but he's been driving BlackStar crazy, and Tsubaki looks so stressed that I doubt that she'll be able to enjoy her own wedding," he said, and Maka had to admit that it wasn't only Tsubaki and BlackStar that were annoyed by Kidd. Liz had flat out stopped speaking to him, and Patti had, once again, dumped him - this time for being a "selfish fuckwad". Blair, who had designed Tsubaki's wedding dress and was sewing it herself, had banned Kidd from the entire back half of the ship.

"Should we talk to him?" Maka said, wiping at the paint Soul had smushed on her cheek, stopping when Soul shook his head.

"I don't think that would do much, honestly. Tsubaki keeps talking at him and it's just in one ear and out the other," he said, turning to look for the bride-to-be, and instead seeing a much more unwelcome crew member heading their way. "Speak of the devil," Soul groaned, hiding his face in one large palm.

"Maka! May I speak to you?"

"Lord help me," Maka whispered to the sky, grimacing before turning to Kidd with a plastic smile. "Kidd!" she said with false cheer. "How can I help you?"

"Oh, I just noticed that you were repainting and wanted to give you some suggestions for a new emblem, since we're all cleaning for the wedding and such," he said with a grin, and Soul groaned again, pinching the bridge of his nose. Maka's glare could level all of New Death Haven, and Kidd's smile faltered.

"What on god's great Earth does my emblem have to do with Tsubaki and BlackStar's wedding?" Maka asked, her grip on the paintbrush in her hand tightening until it was close to snapping in her palm. The pilot was very proud of her ship, including the logo, which she had designed herself.

"Well, nothing, but I figured since you were repainting it anyways, that I could-"

"Walk away Kidd," Maka said, pointing a paintbrush at him. "Just walk. Away."

"But it's so asym-"

"I swear to god if you say asymmetrical I will shove you into the ocean."

Kidd smartly chose to walk away at that, making a beeline towards a very-stressed Tsubaki. Maka could see the dark circles under her eyes from where she stood nearly 40 feet away, and her heart went out to the bride-to-be. This was supposed to be the happiest time of her life, not the most stressful.

"Kidd gone?" Pilot and captain looked towards the voice, Soul's eyebrow raising when Liz peeked around the edge of the ship.

"Yeah," he said, motioning for her to come closer, "you just missed him."

"Thank god," the gunwoman said with an relieved sigh, straightening the bandana that held back her hair. "I need a word with you both."

"If it's about Kidd, there's not much we can do," Maka huffed. "Tsubaki won't fire him, and Kidd isn't listening to anyone."

"Who said we had to make him listen?" The grin that stretched across Liz's face was pure evil, and Soul quickly took a few steps back when Maka's answering smile held the same amount of wicked glee. "You still have that rope we bummed offa' Ox's ship?"

"Yup."

"You thinking what I'm thinking?"

"_Oh yeah._"

"I'm walking away so I can claim plausible deniability when you two inevitably end up in jail," Soul said as he quickly walked away, turning on his heel and power-walking back towards the ship ,and the safety of his bunk, when Kidd called out his name and started rushing towards him. Liz and Maka stayed behind, the open cans of paint forgotten as they began to plot.

**O~**

"Kidd, there's been an issue with the dresses!"

Kidd spun around quickly from the desk he had installed in his bunk, looking at Maka with wide eyes behind his half-moon spectacles. His desk was covered in papers and plans, and Maka made a mental note to come back down here when the... situation, was taken care of, and grab everything important.

"What's wrong?" he asked, standing from his seat and quickly making his way to where Maka hung onto the ladder.

"The skirts are all different sizes, and two of them are darker than the others," she relayed, her face scrunched up with worry. Kidd looked like he was about to have a heart attack on the spot, and quickly climbed the ladder, dodging Maka to get to the top faster.

"I told you ladies that you should have left the dresses to me!" he said, looking down at her as he pulled himself out of the hole. "Now we'll have to have Blair fix them all, or maybe even have to reorder the-"

A long, lanky arm wrapped around Kidd's narrow chest, holding his arms tight to his side as a sweet-smelling cloth was pressed to his mouth and nose. The doctor struggled for only a few seconds before falling limp, slumping back into the taller woman behind him.

"We got him?" Maka asked as she reached the top, watching as Liz shoved the cloth soaked in chloroform into her back pocket, readjusting her hold on the unconscious man.

"Yeah," she grunted, hoisting him onto her back fireman style. "This should keep him down for few hours, three at the least. You got the rope?"

Maka pulled up the coil of rope from behind her back, grinning evilly. "As if I would forget it. Take him to the closet-"

"Did you two just knock out my wedding planner?"

Maka and Liz spun around, the older woman accidentally dropping Kidd to the cold hard ground as they stared at an unamused-looking BlackStar.

Over the past few weeks, fighting with BlackStar had become a spectator sport to everyone besides the stupid and suicidal. With Kidd constantly harassing him, and his bride-to-be being more stressed and sensitive than ever, most of the crew was surprised that the poor man hadn't called the whole thing off. He was acting with surprising maturity, trying to keep Tsubaki calm and happy, and if that involved not nearly taking Kidd's head off at least 4 times a day, so be it.

"Um, yes?" Maka said hesitantly.

"What's the rope for?"

It was Liz's turn to answer."Tying him up until the wedding is over?"

BlackStar just quirked an eyebrow at the two, and they squirmed, hoping he wouldn't turn his wrath on them.

"You're not mad," Maka asked, "are you?"

"Oh, I'm mad alright," he said lowly. After a few tense moments, a wide, shit-eating grin appeared on his face, and Maka and Liz both had to smile at the very BlackStar-like expression. "Mad you planned on doing this without me! I've been wanting to shove him in a closet for weeks!"

Maka held the rope out towards him, dangling it in front of the bluenette. "Wanna help?" she asked with an evil grin, a matching smile on BlackStar's face as he took the rope.

"Oh yeah."

The three, carrying Kidd between them, made their way towards the medical bay, stopping only once when they passed Patti, who was eating a sandwich in the kitchen.

"... Do what you gotta do," she dismissed with a shrug, yelling after them to not break anything too badly on her sometimes- beau.

"We promise nothing!" BlackStar yelled over his shoulder, tossing Kidd onto one of the cots as Maka and Liz set up a chair. "So we're just gonna tie him up?" he asked, watching the two women move the knocked-out man to the chair.

"That's the plan," Maka grunted, shoving Kidd into place. BlackStar sighed, rubbing his temples.

"As much as I'd like to keep the rat bastard tied up until the wedding, Tsubaki would probably get all upset," he said. Maka and Liz exchanged looks, looking at the rope the weapons tec' still held in his hands.

"So... we're _not _tying him up?" the pilot asked, confused.

"No, we are," BlackStar said, the wicked grin coming back. "But from this point on, we're doing this my way." Liz opened her mouth and BlackStar cut her off with a roll of his eyes. "No, we're not gonna kill him. What part of _ex-_assassin do you people not seem to get?"

"Well then," Liz huffed, "what are we gonna do to 'im?"

BlackStar just smiled.

**~O**

Kidd woke up with a killer headache and the uncomfortable feeling of rope burning into his wrists. The room he woke up in was dark, but the familiar hums and ticking of machinery assured him that he was in his infirmary. His memory from the moments before he was knocked out were a bit fuzzy, but there was only one person on the ship that had access to chloroform 24/7.

"LIZ!" he roared, tugging at the restraints that kept him tied to the chair in the middle of the room. "LET ME GO IMMEDIATELY! LIZ! MAKA! I SWEAR YOU TWO-"

The lights flicked on, and Kidd quickly closed his eyes, his tirade cut off as the sudden bright light seemed to pound into his skull. He groaned, slumping back into the chair.

"Good, you're awake."

Kidd's eyes snapped open at the very male voice that spoke, watching as BlackStar brought his hand back towards his body and away from the light switch. He was leaning back in his own chair, twirling a small dagger in the air as he stared Kidd down. The light caught the sharp edge of the knife menacingly, and Kidd swallowed thickly.

"Were you the one who put Liz and Maka up to this?" he asked, trying to seem authoritative though it was clear that BlackStar was in charge of the situation.

"No, they did that on their own," the bluenette responded easily. "They were tired of your crap, and decided to take matters into their own hands."

"I've done nothing to warrant this kind of treatment-"

BlackStar caught the dagger in midair, pointing it at the spot between Kidd's golden eyes, the tip just a hair's width away from his pale skin. "You let your obsessive compulsive loose on _my _wedding," he said lowly. "You have turned my future-wife into a stressed out mess, and have managed to alienate yourself from all of your friends because you were too focused on trying to get everything _exactly. Perfect."_

The silence that followed was thick with tension, Kidd's eyebrows knitting together. "I just wanted to make your wedding perfect," he said slowly. "You and Tsubaki have been good friends to me, I wanted to take care of this for you."

"I understand that Kidd, and trust me, I appreciate what you were _attempting_ to do." BlackStar leaned back into his chair again, fiddling with the dagger he held. "But your execution left a lot to be desired. True, we should have seen this coming, and yes, Tsubaki shouldn't have said yes, but we told you to stop multiple times, and you ignored us." The look in his aquamarine eyes was surprisingly soft. "You're one of my best friends Kidd, but just get us some towels or something as a wedding gift."

Kidd nodded slowly, hanging his head in shame. "Yes. Looking back, I see that my actions were a bit, irrational."

"Well, you know what they say about hindsight being 20-20."

"I promise you BlackStar, I will do better this time," the doctor said confidently. "I will not let my tendencies towards the symmetrical do anymore damage to your wedding-"

"Woah woah woah, dude, hold your horses," BlackStar said quickly, uncrossing his legs so he could lean forward and face Kidd. "You're not coming near the rest of the planning with a twenty foot pole."

"What?"

"You're fired," BlackStar deadpanned. "Maka and Soul called in a few favors, and a wedding planner from New Death Haven is flying over to help finish the planning. Your only job is to keep your suit clean and show up."

"But I'll do better this time!" Kidd cried, distraught at the thought of all of his hard work going down the drain. "I promise."

"You had your chance man, you blew it," BlackStar said with a shrug. "I love ya' like a brother, but we learned our lesson. Maybe when you and Pat tie the knot, you can have her ripping her hair out while you obsess over the size of the cake and if it could be cut into multiples of 8." The bluenette stood, tucking his dagger away and patting Kidd's shoulder. "Thanks for trying, but like I said, get us towels instead."

He headed towards the doors, pulling them open when Kidd yelled. "Wait, shouldn't you untie me!?" BlackStar was silent for a few moments before he turned towards Kidd with an evil grin.

"Nah, I think I'll let you stay there until Sunday dinner."

"But it's Saturday morning!"

"Consider it payback for all the nights my soon-to-be bride couldn't sleep because you were stressing her out," he said with a two finger salute, stepping out of the doors and with one final grin, closed the doors.

He walked away, cackling like he was a teenager again as Kidd's yells followed him as he headed towards the kitchen. He could smell Tsubaki's famous blueberry muffins in the oven, and if he was lucky, BlackStar might be able to lick the remaining batter off his lovely fiancee.

"BlackStar? BlackStar! Damn it BlackStar, let me out! _BLACKSTAR! __**BLACKSTAR!"**_

**O~**

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